How's this deal look?

[Scott Stevens]

I will be leaving the country later this year and will be away for almost a year. My wife and I will be looking to find somewhere to live closer to her work so she can take care of the dogs between work and her classes, which I do now since I can do that with my job and our current house location.

Anyways, if we rented, we'd likely get hit with the crazy pet fees, and we also like the idea of picking up another property.

There are a couple 2bd/2ba apartments/condos close to her work in the Savannah, GA area and they are priced with an asking of 40k, built in mid 1980's and have newer roofs.

The rents for those and comparable properties is 700 per month.

She'd live there for about 10 months while I'm away and then we'd both live there when I return for a few more months before I move away to my next military assignment.

Here are the numbers I have for once we rent the property:

$170 association fee monthly (includes water, trash, pest cntrl, exterior maint)

$20 per month for taxes (230 per year on similar valued apts in the developent)

$25 per month insurance

$70 per month vacancy factor

$40 per month maintenance.

$70 month property management fee,

For a total of.... almost $400, so the cash flow would be $300.

We are considering paying cash due to the purchase price being lower and to avoid paying interest on a place we'd be living at for a little bit.

Would this be a good/bad/decent deal? Would we be able to loan against the property to purchase a higher valued property later on? Should we look into doing something else?