Let me giove you an analogy.You are starving, and want to eat... you don't want to buy a gun to go hunting because it is way too expensive.. so the free way is to go chasing chickens and squirrels in the wild.Get it?

Hey @Chad MichaelLike @Mark S. said, sometimes you need to be flexible as things will come up.Generally I follow this plan:https://www.biggerpockets.com/blogs/8814/63630-how...So for your landscaping question, whenever all of the outside work is finished is about the right time to start that, but even with the best plans, the sooner you start, the bigger the risk that you might end up doing it twice, as in the case of unplanned water, gas, or sewer issues.Cheers! 

Or Possibly a low down lease from Hyundai where you are out of pocket $1999 but the monthly payment is low and you are not dealing with repairs and unplanned expenses.

Sometimes even a blind squirrel finds a nut, and I am just having to hunt that blind squirrel down.

Besides, I don't want any unplanned trips to the hardware store for a fitting or materials I discover I need when connecting a new appliance to existing plumbing/electrical.

An Arkansas boy was frying up some squirrel.

@Amanda Young I squirrel away about $5500 per house.  

@Andrew Johnson ,  potentially could have worked but the real problem with the midwest properties was not fully understanding the unplanned expenses and how difficult it would be to find tenants.  

@James Blais I was driving around looking at properties last night, after unsuccessfully trying to trap squirrels in my current 3-family attic.

Carpets in high traffic areas in rental homes simply do not work and is the elephant in the room when it comes to unplanned expenses.