But, with the tax spreadsheet - entering the data into TurborTax manually is a piece of cake.

You know, travel insurance, art work, local restaurants, special cake delivery, laundry service (for their kids at college), car service, special events, etc...etc.I know someone who is hiring a full time person to manage just this aspect (so, it will cover their salary plus make money). 

You can't have your cake and eat it too. 

Samantha,Not sure if you're still looking for input from investors, but since I just discovered your thread researching MACK I figured I'd chime in.Unfortunately I don't have any experience with the software itself, but I can give you some thoughts on what I look at when studying a proforma.An ideal proforma for me includes:Multiple external and internal photos of the propertyRehab status# of beds, baths, garageMarket rents (or, if rents are estimated using something like the 1% rule, noting how they were derivedDefault allowances for vacancies and maintenance reserves > 0% (this was one thing that immediately turned me off in the "available properties" email I got from MACK last week)Monthly mortgage payment estimates assuming a 20% or 25% down paymentInsurance estimatesProperty tax estimatesCash flow ($), Cap rate, cash-on-cash return, return on equity, and ROI (with both cash-only and leveraged #s displayed where relevantMonthly & annual views of income & expense estimates10/20/30-year financial scenarios for all of the key measures of returnNeighborhood info is icing on the cake -- schools, crime rate, public transit, and compsI realize that's a lot to absorb.

Appreciation is a nice icing on the cake but the cash flow is the real yield that keeps on giving no matter what the market does to the value of the home.  

We know first hand that project management is so piece of cake and especially with you doing some of the work, finding the deal, etc.

And then, as the icing on the cake, I might get a huge capital appreciation as the USD/BRL exchange rate reverts to the mean.

No, you cannot have your cake and eat it too.My reading is that in general your eligibility for the Section 199A deduction is determined on a property by property basis, although there are some aggregation rules. 

For rentals 3/2's will go like hot cake but anything larger or much larger you will need to just wait.

The cash flow is just icing on the cake to them as they do not need the money.