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

If someone was building their home new (or major reno) for the first 5 months of the year and then places the property into service in June, does the first 5 months of contractor work (building the new home) count towards the calculations or does the timeline only start after the home is put into rental service?

Understand the fees involved and calculate the total cost for an entire year of management so you can compare the different managers.

It was admittedly somewhat of a frustrating process and I got the impression that lenders purposefully make it challenging to remove and do the bare minimum to meet the federal guidelines for removal (very slow responses to PMI removal inquiries requiring multiple follow ups, incomplete or missing information on the process of removal or borrower rights, calculating LTV incorrectly, etc, etc).

Calculated risks.  

Are you asking this in regards to holding periods for capital gains tax calculations ST vs LT?

Is the holding period calculated from the purchase date to the sale date?

That said, I expect the IRS to apply this calculation on a monthly basis since AFRs can be adjusted monthly.

If you run the numbers properly, you’ll see that borrowing money, even hard money, is almost always cheaper than giving away half your profit.We use the calculation above for screening, but we always run the numbers in detail before agreeing to a loan.

Calculate operating expenses, including property management fees, maintenance, taxes, insurance, and utilities.