You may also deal with onerous third party requirements as the PCNA, appraiser, etc would have to look at each site versus all at once.FNMA and Freddie would have lighter soft costs but I believe they also have the 5 unit requirement.

I also believe cash reserves are super important and that might have more weight in my decision.

Especially with the weight of a house on it and much of it unable to be seen.

Theoretically, they have already gone through vetting their "team members" and since they have more numbers behind them, they usually carry more weight when things get askew.

These houses will have 2 washers, 2 dryers, 2 fridges, plus entertainment like a streaming Blu Ray player, HDTV, kegorator, fire ring with fire wood outside, ping pong, darts, exercise equipment and free weights, etc. 

Having recently received a threatening letter from an attorney regarding a disputed Security Deposit refund, I would love to bring in a stack of Testimonials and/or Performance Ratings from previous tenants.Don't know how much weight they would carry with the Magistrate, but I figure all ammunition is good ammunition!

That back pack sure did get lighter.

My townhouse gives me a little bit of each, but Id rather it be more heavily weighted to one or the other.

At what point does a buy a hold investor re-evaluate and which calculation holds more weight for you?

Now as we enter our third year with the house, we are looking at two prospective properties to become our second {International} student house as we are consistently over-subscribed at the existing house.The potential pitfalls with renting a large (10-bedroom) house by the room:1) Zoning may not allow for a rooming house;2) No-one looks after the common areas - we started out with the tenants cleaning the common areas which worked fine the first year (we had the right mix of tenants) but did not work well this year ... ironically, the biggest problems were the two Canadian students in the house who did not pull their own weight.