My question is when looking to rehab a house to put on the market for rent how do you know how much longer the bigger ticket items will last such as the HVAC, Roof etc?

This was much better for us as opposed to lowering price - because we were cash poor and would not have the cash to make those big ticket updates ourselves, even with a lower purchase price.

When can we get our tickets?

Interesting enough, some of us not liking high risk, still buy lottery tickets.  

BIG tickets items are really important though; foundation cracks, structural issues, bowed walls, or uneven flooring.

The pre-approval is simply a letter that states that you are pre-qualified to purchase a SF or MF home up to a certain price - essentially this is your ticket to get to view properties for sale.

I was so traumatized by it all that I would think twice about renting to someone that got a jay walking ticket!

otherwise let me be the first to say, RUN. do not buy this. ok with that out of the way, a few things you can adjust to give you a more realistic picture in the calculator. no matter what you'll always be spending some money on repairs when you first get into a place, so off the bat i would put a grand or two for estimated repairs. i run my vacancy numbers at 8% as this is just about a month. your capex should be lower, unless this place has some really big ticket items waiting to die. same with repairs. also the insurance numbers and property tax number both seem very high, is this the real numbers or just place holders?

Convince her to lose the dog and cat, buy her a one-way Greyhound ticket to Columbus, Ohio.

This makes it easier to come out occasionally without breaking your cash flow on plane tickets across the country.