My concern is that the property taxes will only be at this level short term and then go back up and ruin the cash flow.Thanks Most everything you need to know about the taxes on a particular property can be found on the Cuyahoga County Auditor website.

I found the owner of the neglected property on the auditors site and called him, seems he is interested in selling the property.

My Dad is a CPA and a former County Auditor, so I get this service free :)

If an auditor caught that on either end he would definitely be tracking down that case as the unreported income possibilities could be immense.Dave T & Jason Watson, Section 179 is not allowed for rental property; however, in some years "bonus depreciation"(Which is essentially the rental version of Code Sec. 179 is allowed.Also, Depreciation is not required to be taken; however, when the property is sold you are required to report it based upon the greater of depreciation that was taken or SHOULD have been taken.

Banks are regularly visited by federal auditors and work hard to keep in compliance with properly handling transactions.

My day job is as an auditor at a large regional bank.

**disclaimer: I am a commercial energy auditor and work in the residential sector as well**One thing that all landlords and property owners should do is call their local utilities and see what energy efficiency programs are offered by their utilities.

Very marginal Tenants here: sometimes they have eviction or two and put extra security deposits, always pay late fees and once in a while there is an eviction happen.These you can tell by higher crime rate, subsidized school lunches very high, low market value and high %% of rentals (auditor site gives that info as "non owner occupied".The best idea to get a feeling for the areas you'd be comfortable to buy- drive by on Friday evening or Saturday  whole day long.Statistics are good but without personal look you might get mistaken - there are plenty good pockets in bad neighborhoods and vise versa 

But it's loan audits that can turn up cheaters, lying about occupancy, these are done by private compliance auditors hired by the bank, then you have regulators who audit and loan servicers.Audits are done in the early stage of the loan, after closing.

Ask a CPA or an IRS auditor, or could be like me and have a former IRS Auditor as your CPA.