CapEx killing cash flow analysis

[Michael Kissel]

I've been looking for my first rental property in Buffalo, NY area and using the rental property analysis tool from this site to do evaluations.  I use estimates of 5% vacancy, 5% repair & maintenance and 10% capex, which from my research are typical values to use.  Using these estimates, I have not had any luck finding a property that returns an acceptable monthly cash flow, even when putting in sell prices considerably less than asking.  I'm looking at duplex, triplex and quadplex's and shooting for around $200 per unit per month in positive cash flow, which again seems to be what is recommended.

Are my estimates for vacancy, capex, etc too high?

Is approx. $200/unit/month expecting too much?

Or are seller's just that out of line with their asking prices?

[Vanessa Vandervalk]

I've always thought that CapEx as a percent seems off. Doesn't it depend a lot on what the rent is? A 1500 sq ft house that rents for $800 vs a 1500 sq ft house that rents for $3000 could have about the same CapEx in real amounts. It seems more prudent (and time consuming) to estimate actual costs based on the ages and condition of everything. Does anyone do this, maybe with a spreadsheet set up for this purpose?