My pleasure @Scott Rankin, looking forward to bringing everyone together to speak about some of the challenges that @Mark Miles brought up along with all the terrific benefits of investing in smaller markets has to offer. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Recommend you first figure out the property Class you want to invest in, THEN figure out the corresponding location to invest in.Property Class will typically dictate the Class of tenant you get, which greatly IMPACTS rental income stability and property maintenance/damage by tenants.If you apply Class A assumptions to a Class B or C purchase, your expectations won’t be met and it may be a financial disaster.If you buy/renovate a property in Class D area to Class A standards, what quality of tenant will you get?

The best way to estimate expenses is experience and knowledge of your specific asset type and market.For vacancy, that will depend on your market and the quality/desirability of your type of unit.

@Timothy Newsome Speaking of suggestions, please see my last post.

Joe Asamoah who focuses on quality homes and solid tenants.

I literally don't expect to speak to my tenants more than once a quarter. 

I can't speak to Richmond, but when I started out I was able to get referrals to a good agent from a real estate investor group in my area. 

Better to have your own property manager use trusted handymen to take care of the issues for long term/quality fixes. 

After spending hours on due diligence and speaking with two different attorneys.

Signs of this are poor lease quality, maybe M2M tenants, high expenses (unnecessary things like high trash bills, internet, cleaning, security).