@Dwayne DilbeckThe fact that you participate in your employer 401k does not have any weight on your eligibility for the Solo 401k.

You can access FHA's handbook here.My own two cents -- the appraiser is still going to give more weight to the closed sales but the active and pending listings at least show where the price trends are headed (up, down, or stable).

As @Steve Vaughan pointed out, full costs for utilities, lawn upkeep, and snow removal are easily offloaded to the tenant, and if things go crazy on the small lawns the fixer landlord can step in with his equipment and save the day before the municipality gets on his back.It's an affordable way for people with ordinary incomes to get into REI.

I'm confident that the deposit that was given to me before he moved in won't cover the years of wear and tear on the flooring, paint, overall upkeep, etc.  

Scott,There are several items that you need to think about; common area cleaning, common area utilities (electrical at least), laundry room upkeep, fire alarm servicing and possibly monitoring, etc.

You'll also want to ensure you have a good property manager to look after the upkeep of the property if you are not there to notice anything deteriorating or which may need attention.Creating an LLC in California would cost you a minimum tax of $800 every year.

It depends on your location, size of property, purchase price, nightly rate you can get, your upkeep of the property, and many other factors.If your unit shows well in photos and if you build up some good reviews in the first months, and your pricing is reasonable, it will be consistently rented.We have 3 of them, and all less than 1 year so the jury is still out, but in our experience so far, the startup and ongoing costs have been higher than expected, but all are getting good reviews, so in year 2 (now that they are stable) we expect to do pretty well.You have to make sure your town allows it, and you have to decide if you will manage it yourself and take on that extra work (communicating with the guests and people who will clean/make repairs) or if you will hire a property manager, which can be expensive, upwards of 25%.

The handyman demand here is INSANE— everyone worth their weight is booked for weeks.

However, there is a great amount of weight rightly placed on being able to demonstrate experience and success that mirrors a person's ability to execute a proposed development.

They were not made to serve as weight-bearing floor joists for an attic converted to living space.