BiggerPockets also has a calculator to analyze deals, and I highly recommend you start this as soon as possible, even if you are not ready to buy.

For people that want more opportunity in their lives what comforts can they trade, what calculated risks can they take today for that opportunity/wealth in the future? 

Does anyone have a trusty renovation/construction estimate calculator or guide they use for our market? 

They did it without a forum to ask questions, no podcasts to listen to, no formulas and calculators.

So, if your aren't counting them in your calculations here then your cashflow is probably $255 LESS (assuming 5% budgeted for each) for a new cashflow of $245.

Stop the blaming game and the scarcity mindset, there are plenty of deals to go around. good all around post.. only thing I slightly disagree with is having your agent look at every deal your looking at.. that would have the agent bogged down with busy work.. the investor should know what a deal is by just the big numbers.. they dont need to run calculators on simple rentals use 50% of gross income for expenses to start.. if you do better fine .. but if it does not cut it 50% or a little lower then its no go .. and on to the next.. 

This needs to be calculated in to the evaluation.

Appfolio lets you pull credit reports, calculate if income is met, etc... 

Crunch the numbers - Carefully calculate potential cash flow, ROI, and cap rate.

I wish there is an example showing how to calculate and how depreciation recapture is applied.