I added a laundry room, new roof, external lighting, modified the landscape, new front porch that stretches across the entire front of the house.

The price to revenue ratio is amazing and the appreciation has been externally favorable over the last few years. 

Hi, first time on Bigger Pockets came across the site purely by accident.My problem is this I currently have a property management company in place and have been with them for over 4 years over the last 3 years we have not really made a return on our investment due to what can only be described as a high volume of repairs which are carried out  by the conpany and not with external contractors. 

Each investor has their comfort level as well as external factors that lead to their decision.

These tanks, and direct vent gas furnaces/boilers, can be plumbed directly through the side of the building (foundation wall, sill plate, etc) provide the exhaust exists the required distance from an operable window, door, or other air intake.From an energy efficiency stand-point, direct vented fixtures are preferable as they are not taking their supply of combustion air from the conditioned space of the building (are you have already heated), causing colder, external air to be drawn into the building.Additionally, as Pat has pointed out, direct vented fixtures reduce the risk of natural gas/propane or CO being drawn back into the conditioned space of the home. 

A whole life policy that is optimized for banking has a guaranteed death benefit and cash value you will be contractually entitled to if you keep up your end of the deal (pay your insurance premiums) As we all know an investment goes up and down in value depending on external factors.

OR you have to order 'retro-fir' windows that have external fins...they slide into the opening from the outside, but they are a custom fit - add $300-400 per opening and 5-6 weeks to your time table....but then no exterior trim and a little on the inside... 

That puts you in the low end of that 3-5% range to essentially just break even from any external economical factors increasing your expenses.

- There are other external concerns that I have i.e. state budget shortfalls, too much concentration in one job sector (ex. tech), running out of water situation, earthquakes, fires, etc., any thoughts on how others navigate this? 

They don't always get it right or correctly anticipate external influences on a given neighborhood, but there is typically a lot of psychological investment in zoning.