This is a very very common rookie mistake.I wrote a blog about that here in BP here.

I think a personal recommendation would help most (so if anyone wants to help out a rookie feel free to).I work in PE Real Estate and we typically only deal in gateway markets, however we will do one off deals in secondary markets if the returns are healthy enough.

If your repair guy says it fixed it is operator error and I would put a suggestion to read the manual in the letter.  

., that error is on you.

I first heard about Bigger Pockets when I was reading about the unfortunate situation where a squatter scammed a San Francisco rental (Cory Tschogl in 2014) and while reading further as the story was breaking the news...

I’ll take it…there is a margin of safety here and room for miscalculations and errors.

Probably a dictation error, but is there an InspectorGeek?

@Joe Fornasiero cleared up my error above:  I was under the impression that student loan interest was not tax deductible (the same as here).  

Two people (one measuring and one drawing) using a combination of laser tapes and conventional tapes can measure a conventional 2000sqft house in maybe an hour or two max with less error than using an extension tape alone.

If it goes as planned and the unit gets rented I'll be getting great cash flow...but if not i could be making a terrible error for myself and family.