Bloat – regarding tax benefit from write-off as a primary residence owner (mortgage interest and taxes) versus rental income loss ( up to 25K)….are you saying that I can achieve a comparable or even greater tax deduction via rental loss as long as it does not exceed the 25K?

You can write off more things on a rental. These include: depreciation, insurance, maintenance, and anything related to managing, marketing the rental, etc. Depreciation alone would likely be 10K per year in your case.

You deduct these against the rental income first. Any additional losses (up to 25K, if you make less than 100K) can be deducted against regular income.

This 25K limit decreases by $1 per each dollar you make over 100K. It goes to zero at 150K.

Any losses you cannot deduct are carried forward for the next tax year as a carryover loss. You can use these in the future or take all your carryover losses when yo dispose of the property.