We have been doing that for 4 years and so far we haven't had anything crop up that couldn't be handled by our people.I will say that keeping up on maintenance on your home's systems is very important.

So it makes sense when @Jay Hinrichs and @Brian Burke are building from the ground up, they are taking a accepted and informed risk for a relatively high return which seems a lot better pot odds then investing in the current crop of these low margin value-adds in which you are taking an unknown risk masquerading as low-risk for an acknowledged low return.

It is fair to say that these months do not seem to bring out the cream of the tenant crop.

I want nothing else to do with investments if this current crop of authoritarians get anywhere near the reigns of power. 

There is always someone that doesn't know everything and something crops up that should have been known.

Other than that the order you listed is about right, but of course different things can crop up on a case by case basis from contract to closing (for instance cloud on title such as delinquent taxes etc.)If you are just getting started get to know some local contractors with investor friendly prices.

There is no time restriction.For S-corp election, in a simplified explanation, If you want to ELECT LLC as s-corp, you have to do within 2.5 months in the year you want to be taxed as S-crop when you create LLC (But IRS gives you some exception and you can elect past 2.5 months too.

Do they have enough $$$ in reserve for any issues that crop up?

So what you have now is a whole new crop of turnkey companies.

These are recurring costs.Soft costs are costs that crop up when you least expect it, lol.