I've been looking at homes in an area where it seems like you can get much more "bang for your buck" buying a duplex instead of a single family home. We also have not been able to find a desirable single family home in the area that we are searching. I have a few questions that maybe some of you have dealt with, so I thought I'd ask here.
1. It seems like the interest rates being offered on a conventional mortgage for a duplex vs a single family home are a bit higher. We are okay with this but we were thinking of paying points to obtain a lower interest rate.
* if this were a single family home these points would all be tax deductible
* since this would be an owner occupied duplex, does that mean half of the value of the points could be deducted now (for the half we occupy), and the other half would have to be deducted over the term of the loan (for the rental portion)?
2. Our income is such that we are subject to AMT and therefore our property taxes will not be tax deductible. It seems that for the duplex, we should still be able to deduct half of the property taxes against the rental income. Is this the case?
3. Does anyone have any general advice about land lording? It seems like a nice way to have a tiny bit of passive income and since we'd also be occupying the house it wouldn't be a terrible inconvenience to do minor repairs, etc by ourselves.