In the short term, I aim to replace my monthly income from my current entry-level job, I dont make a ton of money so this shouldn't be too difficult.

I did eventually get them evicted and thankfully they didnt trash my property (though they left a lot of trash that cost me $500 to get rid of but o well).The other time this happened was a tenant I moved in who had a good job at a hospital, the hospital had a program where they paid the security deposit and first months rent.

Also, focus on 2 years of job/income stability.Class D Properties:Cashflow vs Appreciation: Typically, all cashflow with little, maybe even negative, relative rent & value appreciationVacancy Est: 20%+ should be used to cover nonpayment, evictions & damages.Tenant Pool: majority will have FICO scores under 560 (almost 30% probability of default), little to no good tradelines, lots of collections & chargeoffs, recent evictions.

And who knows what is in store with the jobs market.It also depends upon the election and what policies are implemented.I am hoping prices continue to drop in multifamily, and we see a pick up in activity.

Others 15 yrs, etc.So we depreciate a portion of the asset costs faster.We do the study and get dollar amounts assigned to different parts and different schedules to front-load depreciation.Now you can get 5 or 6% of the value as a deduction in the early years...But wait... there's more.Bonus depreciation allows you to deduct a certain percentage of cost in the first year an asset is put into service.Anything that is on a schedule of 15 years or less...So the doors, sidewalks, HVAC, walls, latches, curbs, security, gates, etcA % of this stuff goes in Yr 1.For years 2015 through 2017, first-year bonus depreciation for these items was set at 50%.It was scheduled to go down to 40% in 2018 and 30% in 2019, 0% in 2020.But then the Tax Cuts and Jobs act moved this percentage to 100% from 2017 to 2022 and 80% in 2023 and 60% in 2024.Its not uncommon to allocate 30% of an asset cost to items that can be depreciated on a 15 year or faster time frame.So now 60% of that 30% of your asset's cost can be depreciated in the first year, excluding land.Pretty great.This is how real estate owners, investors, and operators make millions and pay very little in taxes compared to W2 employees.They pay even less and can offset other types of income if they are an RE Pro.

Its referred to as a 1031 improvement exchange.

I am looking to build my portfolio for cash flow through MTRs and STRs - I run a STR management company as my job.

Keep adding to it and improving it.  

Please know that I realize it is a huge job and huge learning curve and may very well not make good sense, but I want to do a thorough analysis  to determine that (and also what price it may make sense for).  

Unfortunately it was hard to find a contractor during the summer who would take on this "small" job (~$3k).