Landlord living in rental unit - tax implications?
Does allowing family to stay at the rental jeopardize my depreciation?  No, accumulated depreciation that hasn't been deducted reduces your basis in the event of sale. That doesn't go anywhere. Accumulating more may not be allowed though. If the property is no longer rental (i.e.: personal use, your family member lives there for free), you cannot claim expenses or depreciation on it. If you still rent it out to your family member, but not at the fair market value, then you can only claim expenses up to the rental income. I.e.: you can only depreciate up to the extent the depreciation (after all the expenses) not being over the income generated. You cannot generate losses in such case, even if disallowed. If you rent to your family member at the market rate (make sure it is properly documented), then the family relationship really doesn't matter. You continue accumulating expenses as usual. A tenant is a tenant regardless of your relationship to them, and as long as the property is classified as an investment property, you can claim depreciation and regular business losses just as you would on any property with any tenant.
"All other factors being equal, owning your primary residence is almost always a good investment over the long haul. Why? Because you have to live somewhere, and rentals, especially long-term leases that are important when you have kids in school, etc.,  are generally in the same ballpark as a mortgage in most markets. Giving $1,500 to a landlord gets me 30 days of living somewhere. Giving $1,500 to the bank gets me a place to live and equity in an asset which requires maintenance, but always has intrinsic value.  Detroit is one extreme, Manhattan or Silicon Valley is another real estate extreme... everywhere else is somewhere in the middle. What isn't always a good investment is speculating in highly elastic ""investment property"" like vacation condos as an amateur. It's a cyclical market, but our attention spans are too short to realize that. As most of the other answers to this question indicate, people tend to be down in the dumps and see all of the problems with real estate when the market is not very good. Conversely people only see the upside and are oblivious to problems when the market is high." Congratulations on saving up $75,000.  That requires discipline and tenacity.  There are a lot of factors that would go into making your decision.   First and foremost is the security of the income stream you have now.  Being leveraged during times of hardship is not a pleasant experience.  Unexpected job losses can and do happen.  Only you can determine how secure your and your spouse's situation is.   Second, I would consider the job market in the location that you live.  If you live in a small town it will be hard to find income levels like you have now.  Rental properties are additional ties to an area.  Are you happy in the area in which you live?  If you were laid off are there opportunities in the same area.  Being a long distance landlord is again not a pleasant experience.  I can throw being forced to sell to relocate at a reduced price into this same bucket. Third, you need to have 3 to 6 months of expenses saved for emergencies.  This is in addition to having no consumer debt (credit cards, car loans, student loans).  $75,000 feels like a lot.  Life can throw you curve balls.  You need to be prepared for them because of the fundamental nature of Murphy's Law.  If you were to be a landlord you should err closer to the six month end of the scale.  I own two rentals and can speak to people being late a given month, heating and air problems, plumbing issues, washers and dryers breaking, weather related issues, and even a tenant leaving behind for truckloads of trash.  Over 20 years I guess I have seen it all.  A rental agency will only act as a minor buffer.   Fourth, your family situation is important.  I personally save 10% of my income for my child's education.  If you haven't started doing so or have different feelings on what you might contribute think about it before any financial move. Fifth, any mortgage payment you are making should be 25% or less than your take home pay for a 15 year fixed rate mortgage.  Anything less than 20% down and you start burning up money on PMI insurance.  'House Poor' is a term for people that make high incomes but have too much being spent for housing.  It is the cause of a lot of financial stress. Sixth, you need to save for retirement.  The absolute minimum I recommend is 15% of your income.  Even if the match is 6% you should invest the full 15% making it 21%.  Social Security is a scary thing and depending on it is not wise.  I think your income still qualifies you for contributions to a Roth IRA.  If you aren't personally contributing 15% do so before making a move. There is an old joke that homeless people who have a 0 net worth often are richer than people driving fancy cars and living in fancy houses.  Ultimately no one can tell you the right answer.  Every situation is unique.  You have a complex tapestry to your financial life that no else one knows. It is very difficult in New York City to evict a tenant. The tenant-landlord laws require that the tenant be taken to housing court. The time between filing a case for eviction and having the case heard is often five to six months. During this time, the tenant is allowed to live in the rental property. Note that this situation is independent of any rent stabilization or rent control aspects of the lease. If either of those issues are involved, there may be additional complications. I know that this is true based on first-hand experience. I was the leaseholder in my apartment, and rented out the extra room to a woman who worked with me. Even though we did not have a formal lease agreement, I was still considered her landlord. I consulted with a real-estate attorney in Manhattan, who told me that the situation was no different whether I was a property owner and rented to tenants, or whether it was a sublet/ roommate situation such as what I was doing. Regardless, the entire process of filing and having a hearing in Housing Court was necessary for eviction. In Florida, as else where, laws vary by county or even at a more local level. I know that the landlord files a notice and arranges for the Marshal's office to remove the tenant. Procedures and law in Miami-Dade County need to be checked on the official county website. GET A LAWYER. Doing business with relatives is business first, and some effort spent in setting things up and nailing down exactly what the financial relationships and obligations are beforehand can save a lot of agony and animosity later. Assuming it's a legal rental, you may be able to deduct business costs spent on maintaining the rental unit, but of course you will have to declare the rent as income. If it's just a bedroom suite, rather than a full legal apartment, I don't think you can claim it as rental. (Note that whether you decide to share cooking and such is a separate question; apartment in most areas requires its own kitchen and bathroom.) As Joe pointed out, the actual purchase also sounds like it's going to involve a large gift, which has its own tax implications. Either that, or they retain ownership of their share and you get to deal with that if you or they decide to sell.  Again: GET A LAWYER. And a tax accountant or tax lawyer to advise you on those implications. This is not someplace where the average wisdom of the Internet should be relied upon except for generalities; local laws and contract details matter. This sounds like a rental fee as described in the instructions for the 1099-MISC.   Enter amounts of $600 or more for all types of rents, such as    any of the following. ... Non-Employee compensation does not seem appropriate because you did not perform a service. You mention that your tax-preparer brought this up.  I think you will need to consult with a CPA to receive a more reliable opinion.  Make sure to bring the contract that describes the situation with you.  From there, you may need to consult a tax attorney, but the CPA should be able to help you figure out what your next step is. "The title is misleading (shocker, right?). The exact wording in the cited study is ""in order to afford a modest two-bedroom rental home at the Fair Market Rent without spending more than 30% income on rent"".  HUD says:  &gt; The Fair Market Rent is HUD’s best estimate of what a household seeking a modest rental home in a short amount of time can expect to pay for rent and utilities in the current market.  So that's not the minimum available 2BR unit available. It's more like 50th percentile rent per zip code. Check rent.com for 2BR prices in Tennessee and Arkansas. They start in the lower $500s.  Also worth noting that if you work 40hr/week all year at minimum wage and claim 1 dependent then you don't owe a dime of Federal income tax." Yes you will need an emergency fund for the rental. Besides appliances, or a roof, that might need to be replaced, you will also have to protect against being unable to rent the unit.  Another risk is that you may have a tenant damage the unit. While you can get the money through the courts it may take months or longer. You can't wait for the money before you repair the unit. Keeping the rental unit funds separate from the rest of your funds will allow you to make sure you are adequately protecting yourself. If it's a rental, you will write off the losses via Schedule E. You should read this document and its instructions to understand this fully. You will also take depreciation on the value of the building, not the land, over 27.5 years. If you don't understand this, search here, there are discussions that cover this.  If it's not a rental, but your home or second home, you take the interest and real estate tax off you tax via Schedule A, if you itemize. (I see the tag 'rental' but leave this line for sake of a complete answer.)