@Ivana Ivanovic I would say 8% is low to cover both vacancy AND repairs.If you expect to incur just one month of rent lost every 12 months, you'd be looking at an 8.33% (1/12 of gross annual income) vacancy rate.And, even for a brand-new build, you're going to have some repair/maintenance costs as long as you've got human tenants.

We should not be trying to piece something together after the fact, but rather:  Ethics should be front and center in everyone's mind and training in everyday life. 

@Marty Rogachefsky, if you repaired the old refrigerator that would be a maintenance/repair aka an operating expense but by replacing something that had reached its useful life its a capital expense and is depreciated.

Happy to share if you're interested.Accounting systems are great: QB, Stessa, Digb but the reality is you want to track a few things at a high level, this will make your life a lot easier when you sell/need to report income/loss, and accounting systems won't always make this easy. 

My thoughts are that it would help create more exposure in REI, give me real-world experience, appease the VA when approving my multi-family property and also help me make the plunge out of my W2 (which, admittedly, is slowly sucking the life out of me). 

Is it a real value add or will it add more stress and complication to the manager's already busy life?  

You get to talk to all age groups and walks of life.

On a building that probably tops out at 680k/ maybe if uts gorgeous and you find someone with more money then sense 700 but i couldnt fathom someone paying nearly 200k per unit in Hartford The real question you want to ask yourself is, is one year of my life.

We address quality of life issues immediately and I spend plenty of time at the properties so they see my face.

@Clayton SilvaI think you covered a lot of the angles - the answer is “it depends” - every person is in a different situation and stage of life and some may want to pay points and others maybe not.Right now I would not be buying down the loan knowing the fed will lower rates, which should slowly bring down the 10 year T which would then lower ratesFor me I would guess I would refi within next 3 years so I wouldn’t pay pointsIf I thought I was not gonna refi within 5-7 years then yes pay points