When we did it, we did score some great deals, but what we found was that we were visiting so many properties to understand our "strike price" (the maximimum we would pay for the property when taking into account rehab costs, hold times, interest on any debt, closing costs, real estate commissions, a contingency reserve for "unexpecteds", etc) that the math started to not make as much sense.

Make sure you have adequate reserves to cover unexpected emergencies.3) Time-intensive - If you live on-site you're a live in property manager on call 24/74) Legal issues - know the max occupancy laws for your area.

Since they notified you of this, you should get it taken care of as your insurance may not cover a claim if there is an accident because it was a known defect.

Plus, if they run into something unexpected (rotting floor boards under the flooring for example) it can take longer to get things done.  

Were there any unexpected hurdles during the rehab or resale process?

Personally, I’ve decided to sell two properties out of my portfolio of 26 to address some unexpected expenses and other debts.I was hesitant at first because I didn’t want to let go of any properties.

A "neutral" cash flow property will likely wind up negative many months/years because there's always something unexpected! 

This is sad, but not unexpected. 

Not only will this help reduce unexpected costs but tenants often take care of their property better when they are responsible for the repair costs. 

While running a large group of small landlords in Philly, i have visibility into the full realm of challenges that new investors face - and some are quite overwhelming and totally unexpected because they jumped in without fully understanding what they jumped into.