It seems that your margin is quite slim - one major repair or a fluctuation in those utilities will put you in the hole.

Fluctuating interest rates, risk of your borrower defaulting, equity in your home decreasing causing lender to reduce HELOC amount, etc are all risks associated with such a venture.If you were to use the money to lend out, make sure you know what you are doing and that your LTV is at or below 65% to keep you in a safe equity position in the event of your borrower defaulting.

This area tends to fluctuate with the oil market.My ROI goes like this:$550 rent-$20 taxes-$40 insurance-$55 vacancy-$50 management fee-$100 repairstotal expenses $265So, $550-$265= $285 * 12= $3420/$18,000= 19% ROII am an attorney and use my office so that cuts down on other expenses.My properties are very management intensive and they do not appreciate much.

A voltage fluctuation caused by Dominion Power neutral wire happened in our residence last week.

Contracts can change or fluctuate all the way up to closing.

It doesn't fluctuate much.When I had individual policies on each property, the vacant coverage was a lot more expensive.

Some of them are yielding 10% with little fluctuation in the stock price.

Joseph RobersonBuy and Hold is an excellent strategy, as it eliminates selling transaction costs which are relatively high, consider commission, transfer tax, selling help etc. which can total maybe 13% or so of the selling price not counting Federal and State income taxes.Number 1 evaluator for buy and hold is that it muct be positive cash flow, if not posiitve forget about it.Forget about appreciation, if it comes its all good, but if it doesn't with positive cash flow you're still good.Market fluctuations, buyers market, sellers market all really don't matter if you are buy and hold and not selling.And tax advantages are the icing on the cake, figure on positive cash flow BEFORE tax advantages not after.I like 30 year fixed mortgages for rental properties, and borrowing as much as you can for as long as you can, to reduce the monthly payments.Besides my book, the two best books are:William Nickerson "How I Turned $1,000 into Five Million In Real Estate"and David Schumacher "Buy and Hold"

the oil prices fluctuate with the gasoline prices and have been as high as $4 a gallon here.

The reason for 2x buffer in monthly revnue is simple, for the Buy&hold invester, a series of evictions, big ticket repairs etc can be detrimental if you only match you monthly salary, and likewise for the flipper, longer hold times, unexpected issues can cause your profit to fluctuate.