Hi Michael,I found this post while trying to formulate my own business plan, and wanted to follow-up with you to see if you ever formed your plan?

Take a solid year to devour as much info as you can on BP, RE books, podcasts, meeting other investors, etc and then you will really be able to formulate a solid strategy that makes the most sense for YOU and your situation.

@Isaac Howell and @London Stewart my advice for beginners is to formulate an actual plan, road map so to speak, about the path you want to follow for investing.

Frank gallineli book was excellent with detailed calculation on how to formulate cash flow.

Been lurking for a while as I learn and formulate some strategies.

This could be formulating a price that works for you and hand picking comps to justify it. 

How much you can borrow is based on the net before debt cashflow the project generates which a lender will use to formulate the amount it will let you borrow which is generally determined by applying a debt service coverage ratio which varies for different deal types which I believe is ~1.40 for a self storage property.The equity you put in will receive the balance of cashflow after debt service which forms the basis of your financial performance (cash on cash and IRR upon sale on a pre and post tax basis).So, the amount you can pay to acquire the property and cover deferred maintenance is equal to a price that allows you to generate enough cashflow to cover debt service and provide you with what you consider to be a reasonable return on your equity investment.HOW you pay is highly related to WHAT you pay.

I'm brand new to the idea of real estate investing and am trying to formulate a plan in order to acquire my first rental property.  

And being able to formulate somewhat hard numbers for money backing to make a decision on.I'd welcome suggestions on that for sure

That's honestly the best way to formulate your plan.