What items do you include in your capital expenditure fund?

[Ryan Ford]

So I am almost finished with the book Rental Property investing, which is what brought me here to the forum. Something the author emphasizes is the importance of calculating capital expenditure into the equation when analyzing a home for investing. I have taken down the items listed in the book and customized the numbers based on where I live and what things cost here. The issue I am having is that I can't seem to find ANY home for sale that leaves cash flow after these deductions. So I'm curious if all of these items on the list in the book actually need to be added into every investment property, or if some can be omitted depending on the property. To sum it up, what items do you include when adding capital
expenditures into the equation?  Any feedback or advice would be greatly appreciated!

[John Teachout]

I don't try to itemize cap ex expenses, just make sure I set enough aside to cover larger cost items. For one thing, how long something lasts can be guessed at but it's not possible to accurately predict how long a component will last. ie, does a water heater last 6, 10, 14 or 20 years? Rather than break out all those expense predictions, I just make sure there's adequate reserves for those "expected" occasional expenses and the "unexpected" ones. It is helpful to realize that there's a lot of items associated with properties that WILL need to be replaced. Eventually.

You can pretend that a cash flow is higher than it is but it will eventually catch up with you.