A solid rule of thumb is 10-20% extra in your budget.If you’re looking for a solid resource, J Scott’s The Book on Estimating Rehab Costs is a must-read.

Now that they know that the CURRENT system is expensive to run, they want me to foot the "extra" cost that will be incurred until the new furnace is installed.

You will need to check with the city/building inspector to determine your options first.

Otherwise, you won't have the extra funds necessary to cover the rising costs of goods and services in the future.What causes rents (and prices) to increase?

. - For the right people (landlord who wants hands-free ownership but achieve higher than normal LTR rate, and arbitrager who has the skills and extra bandwidth, AND has confidence in their own ability), I think this kind of arbitrage model is a win-win.I'll be operating in the Triangle area. 

Gives you more options.- at year 7 if value appreciated a lot, can i do a HELOC on it and use that HELOC to pay off the balloon - probably not due to lien being secondary etc on helocYes on the HELOC, but it would probably be easier just to refi and pay off the seller, and cash out more money too.Hope that helps and good luck!

The reality is the opposite - if it's not in writing then the PMC doesn't have to provide the service or can charge extra for it!

If your long term goals are in business, may as well get a grad degree related to that and I'm sure they have a lot of online options.

One reason was the condo management company wasn't doing a great job and there were always extra levies. 

I use Proper insurance, unwritten by Lloyds of London, for my STR - covers the extra issues you would expect from an STR like vandalism, alcohol liabilities, business interruption up $10k, hot-tub cooties etc.