[rjn]

We just bought a home 600 miles away that we hope to move to within 5 years. My wife goes to this area to visit her family every month or so. While the house is not a fixer-upper, I did spend 10 days working on it after we bought it. More importantly, I tried to establish relationships with people I could call on if work is needed. The house rental is being managed through a real estate firm, but I did not feel that I could depend on them in an emergency. And yes, on my wife's visit a couple of weeks ago, she found water leaking in one of the bedrooms - an ice dam. The carpenter that I had identified not only repaired the sheetrock, etc. but found the source of the leak and fixed it.

There are income limits to writing off rental property losses. The loss can be carried forward to a time when income is lower.