It's going to be a factor almost anywhere you'd invest, but just make sure to add a bit of cushion into your costs to account for increasing premiums.

I’d like to use a handful of properties to cushion my retirement a bit.

So he needs to set aside $36k as a cushion?  

Should give me cushion but I have already budgeted about $30k for current renovations.

I'd like to scale that here in the next little bit to pad and cushion every month.

Your risk and stress is going to be higher without a financial cushion.

One bad deal could be devastating, so you have to know your stuff, and I think you need a pretty decent cash cushion factored in for contingencies.

And I prefer investments that have a cushion for things that might go wrong (and this doesn't).

You want to make sure you can have enough cash to make the payments while renovations occur and before securing long-term financing... as well as give yourself a little (2-3 month) cushion just in case.

We have that cash on hand and a cushion.