AJ

Thanks for writing back so quickly.

"The deductibility of the interest payment on the credit card would be based on if the debt was traceable to your rental real estate, so you would need to show clearly that the debt was solely incurred to pay down the mortgage and be sure not to use the credit card for anything else."

Are you saying that I can write off my interest on the credit card for tax purposes as long as I can trace it back to the mortgage? My credit card is with USAA and they do not have any balance transfer fees, which is why I transferred the 18,500 to them and off of one of my rental properties. The mortgage payment is 1047 a month on this specific property, and I collect 1050 a month in rents. I would look at transfering about 12,000 a year or so one mortgage at a time. Below is a down and dirty.

Rental 1: $203,356.63 (30-year fixed, PITI, 6.75%)
Payment: $1601 per month
Rent: $1300 per month
Rental 2: $197,671.72 (30-year fixed, ITI, 7.5%)
Payment: $1454 per month
Rent: $1200 per month
Rental 3: $144,035.98 (30-year fixed, PITI, 5.75%)
Payment: $1047.35
Rent: $1100 per month
Rental 4: $154,000 (30-year fixed, PITI, 5.25%)
Payment: $951.04
Rent: $1000 per month

Principle Residence: $167,751.31 (30-year fixed, PITI, 5.5%)
Payment: $1444.42
Amount received from brother $722.21
Amount received from tenant $300.00*

*This amount is placed on the loan as an "additional payment" towards principle every month.


My goal would be to start to take some off of Rental 2 since it is an interest only and will then become a principle and interest loan after 10 years. I would work on getting the mortgage payment to less then the rental payment and add on the additional income to pay down the loan faster, thus hitting it from both sides. After that, I'd work on Rental 3, (if I still own it, it's getting close to my "magic number" in which I would sell it), and work on paying that one off.

Thoughts?

kook79