Also, when you do your home inspection (hopefully), a lot of these guys are familiar with maintenance costs and replacement costs.  

Also, you'll need an architect and engineer inspections to make sure the structure is safe. 

For the reserves to replace components a decade or two out, I was hoping to get us into some exposure into an index fund (total bond, total stock, SP 500) or something but left the board before I could convince folks.

While I lived there, I painted all the walls and replaced the water heater.

Roof appeared in great shape and was reported 3-5 years old, ended up being 16+ years old and needing replaced.

His rent pays our property taxes, our water and sewer bills and will be paying to replace the windows in three of his rooms come springtime.

If they have lost that, there is a identification number stamped on the frame that you can use to apply for a replacement at DMV. 

Complete remodel, redid or replaced all flooring, plumbing, electrical, new roof on the garage and retied all the windows.

Hey Bob, population change includes net birth/deaths as well and is not migration, which can confound the directionality of growth.Alaska for example has a birth rate above replacement rate, but barely shows any growth because net migration is negative.Quote from @Bob P.: I tend to like to invest where there are jobs and where people are moving to********************Ranked: Population Changes in U.S.

You don't know what the house was like when he moved in and it has been 13 years, so some of the things you will find are part of normal wear and tear (eg if you need to replace carpet, repaint, etc) not damage that the tenant did.