Put a notice on your calendar, start an auto-pay system, anything that works for you to get those payments in on time every month.Credit utilization is also a big one.

Steve, you should also have Hired and Non-owned Auto and strongly consider EPLI and Cyber.

What if a couple has a child during the term of the lease and continues to live there with the lease auto-renewing? 

I had enough money in that account for auto-pay on taxes and insurance for 3 years (set it and forget it) but they never drew a dime, because the dumbass insurance broker (Part of StateFarm) messed up a number or two on the bank info.

Make sure the agent is knowledgeable in auto and casualty rather than life insurance and financial services.

Like all buy & hold rental investors it would be ideal to have equity, appreciation, and cashflow off the bat if possible, with responsible and friendly tenants that earn 3X the rent on auto-pay with no maintenance issues!!  

Considering it also covers your auto and home policies.

@Ryan Marrero I have thought about doing Airbnb for one of my properties in Northern NJ, but I realized when I received my first customer request to stay in my property for three nights, that hadn’t set up the logistics and business model to make it run on auto pilot.

@Christa S Rickard I'm sure you could operate at 21% but it suggests that you are on auto-pilot...letting the roof rot of the place with insufficient reserves...I'd like to take a look at the actual property performance if you're inclined to send it over...

So a seller could lose big time if you cite some technicality and wiggle out of your putative escalated offer.I can easily see a seller refusing a bid on just the existence of an auto-escalation clause alone.