I own/operate over 150 units in Pittsburgh and you can find every sort of real estate investment play here.

hold some of that initial 100,000$ for reserves. if you spend it all and something goes wrong you wont have time to accumulate profit the first year to really afford to fix anything. then you'd be dependent on personal income or another loan to fix the issue if one arose. play it slow and safe at first while you figure out the game and take some initial hard knocks that are bound to come. 

Of course, I had learned to play by the rules a little better by then. :)

3) Aside from washing the walls or getting a full repaint quoted, would it be reasonable to deduct the expected cost of "Kilz" paint/odor sealant brand for effected square footage?

The condo proceeds from the HELOC used as a down payment will not be taxed.The tax will come into play when the condo is sold.

Your tenants are customers, properties are your product and reputation is your brand.

to me its market dependent and hind sight you know what they say.so for me it was selling the 2 homes I had in Palo Alto and one in MIlpitas.Milpitas I bought that brand new for 79k  Palo Alto one of them I paid 180k for and the other 350k.. if I held those until today..

Sure the million dollar suburbs are nice if you have that kind of money and are playing the larger appreciation game but dollar for dollar pound for pound when it comes down to rent to value ratio its difficult to find the same kind of cash on cash returns section 8 rental properties offer in Detroit.

It can also be used to track and pay mortgages, taxes, insurance, and other expenses.How to get it: The Empower app is available from the App Store for iOS devices or Google Play for Android devices.Cost: Free2.

Having two solid paid off investments is more than enough, and I'd argue that it is even a better play for most people than continuing to scale and scale for the sake of scaling.