It was vital that the house be in close proximity to the one who knew how to do the repairs, because of the technology of our current time theoretically Id be able to monitor and track progress with a trust worthy foreman whos on the job, performing repairs, managing subs, and moving the needle.

You’re already ahead of the game—stick with Central Florida, and you’ll crush it!

The LLC would essentially serve as a business checking account to collect rental payments from your roommates/tenants and potential write-offs for expenses such as property repairs/maintenance.

Hey Peter, thanks for the comment and the insight and you are absolutely correct about knowing what sells in your market, I see this happen with a lot of fix and flip projects that are just in the wrong areas, the investor gets the house for a good price however spends too much on repairs and adds a lot of luxury thinking that it will push the ARV significantly higher than the average in the area.

but, it's not going to be "profitable" for several years, depending on how you define profit.you'll have a down payment, then closing costs - which new investors always seem to be shocked by - then potentially some costs to get a property rent ready, then you'll pay a month's rent to get it listed and rented out, then you'll likely have some repairs after the tenant moves in.  

I'm thinking that repairing the plumbing leaks and getting the soil dried out could be a permanent solution.   

Also, the amount of damage was so expensive to repair that he simply could not afford to fix the more damaged units.

Otherwise, yes you have to either excavate and repair and replace or run a pipe burst through the line, which is usually as expensive as excavating. 

Hi Randall-Congratulations on buying a rental property well back in 2020.I am sorry to hear the property is now cashflow negative $200 a month.Your question is should you sell or continue to keep it with the negative cashflow.Depends on your personal goals and if being negative $200 a month plus any unexpected repairs or vacancies is affordable to you, but if you can solve the negative cashflow by turning the property into a furnished mid-term rental, for example, your future self may thank you.To Your Success!

Deduct NEW property taxes after you buyDeduct home insurance costsDeduct maintenance percentage, typically 10%Deduct vacancy+tenant nonperformance percentage(we recommend 5% for Class A, 10% Class B, 20% Class C, good luck with Class D)Deduct whatever dollar/percentage of cashflow you wantNow, what you have left over is the amount for debt service.Enter it into a mortgage calculator, with current interest rate for an investment property, to determine your maximum mortgage amount.Divide the mortgage amount by either 75% or 80%, depending on the required down payment percentage - this is your tentative price to offer.If the property needs repairs, you'll want to deduct 110%-120% of the estimated repairs from this amount.Be sure to also research the ARV and make sure it's 10-20% higher than your tentative purchase price.As long as the ARV checks out, this is the purchase price to offer.It is probably significantly below the asking price.