Turning an unfortunate situation into a portfolio

[Brandon Polcawich]

Hi, a few months back I lost my mother to leukemia.  My wife and I decided to keep the house and turn it into a rental.  While working on the house to rehab a few small things we have decided to get into real estate investing.  We are now looking at some duplexes in the Pittsburgh PA area.  Currently, looking at some properties that have renters in place already. We are of the mindset that this is the best play because it takes some risk out of taking the plunge.  We are aware there are still plenty of risks.  Running some numbers on some listings we have found a couple that are generating what we could consider a decent amount of cash flow.  We have put 5% for capex and maintenance on our numbers and we are wondering if that is too conservative.  Looking forward to learning a lot from these forums.