Landlording is a great and the passive income every month is even better but there are alot of unforeseen things that arise in this business.

Push the open house back one week so I have more time for unforeseen delays.2.

I would like to withhold a bit to fix up the properties and to retain a reserve to pay for repairs, unforeseen expenses, etc.As I live in Northern California, I cannot afford property in my primary market.

If you have a new roof or new HVAC system as part of your improvements and you plan on selling before these items require replacing, you should reduce the replacement cost effects of these items, still leaving some accounting for unforeseen events.

Unless your clients can prove negligence on your part, it is not your responsibility to prevent unforeseen damage by a tenant.

So, be able to pull the trigger when previously stated unless unforeseen circumstance occur and know that most events are foreseeable.

Or should I be a bit more generous for unforeseen business emergencies?

Frankly, if the repair estimate comes in close to $300,000 you may want to just walk away because there are always some unforeseen expenses.

As you gain experience, you generally will have more cash reserves available to you as of course, ironically, all that experience means you should rarely need it for unforeseen circumstances.

In 4-5 years we should have about 35K-40K as we want to boost our emergency cash to 6 months and crap happens that is unforeseen and might require us to dip into our "investment" money.