If you take the Riviera Maya for example, which is in huge demand (because you have all the pure investors in tourism on top of the expats), it is very cheap compared to the equivalents in either Costa Rica and North America.Finally, I totally understand your reluctance to invest in pre-construction.

I am considering having them ask the residents to sign a 1.5 year lease, which puts the end month in May as opposed to November.

Welcome to BP, Maya!

If you're thinking they'd come in handy, you may as well get access now....Either way, we will have fixes in as soon as we can.  

I guess i can look it up, but may as well asked =).Thanks for the advice on putting extra of rehab cost.

Lorraine Sar I would try to go on the local meet ups in Indy.

At some point I may as well refinance (to keep the ROI high), or exit and put the new assets in an index fund. 

If the housing / rental market softens it's going to shake a ton of people out that are getting by as poor operators right now.If you aren't interested in actually being a property management company then you may, as others have mentioned, be better off getting a proven third party management company to handle it for you.Good luck either way.

Putting that kind of money into the property you may as well put 25k down on a fully renovated property for 185k and have no problems to deal with. 

@Kibby Twong,All the rest aside, buying for appreciation is speculation - read: gambling - it's not investing.You may as well roll the dice on Wall Street.David J Dachtera