It's a good practice to overestimate costs and underestimate after-repair values (ARV) to keep your expectations realistic.

I tried calculating value based on NOI and cap rate (see below) but I'm new to this and the value seems to come out lower than I would expect.

It can also be an opportunity to discuss house rules and expectations to ensure you're on the same page.While being cost-conscious is understandable, investing a little upfront for proper screening can save you a lot of trouble in the long run.

@Phil SheltonYou would need a civil engineer to provide a drawing to get submitted to zoning and get a permit if it passes zoning is most common This also depends on the road - if it’s a state road forget it as it will take a year to get approved and cost a fortune - if it’s a local road process not as cumbersome but don’t expect this to happen quicklyIn some instances you may have to prepare sight distances etc to make sure it’s safe to add a curb cut

My frind in Omaha ended up picking up his second property sooner than he expected, simply because he’d built a small name for himself with one successful deal already under his belt.Are you feeling confident about the day-to-day responsibilities, or is there something else in the process that’s keeping you up at night?

@Ezra Avery you might want to read below to understand Classes of Property/Tenants.Property Class will typically dictate the Class of tenant you get, which greatly IMPACTS rental income stability and property maintenance/damage by tenants.If you apply Class A assumptions to a Class B or C purchase, your expectations won’t be met and it may be a financial disaster.If you buy/renovate a property in Class D area to Class A standards, what quality of tenant will you get?

@Paola AstridRecommend exploring as many sources as possible to get referrals AND cross-reference them to get as much accurate information as possible.Check out NARPM.com, BP’s Property Manager Finder (BiggerPockets: The Real Estate Investing Social Network), etc.Also, encourage you to learn from the mistakes of others - by reading posts here on BiggerPockets about owners not having their expectations met by their current Property Management Company.

Now this is an annual thing (for all new properties).For rough math, you can generate a tax write off about 15-20% of the real estate value: one a million you can expect a $150k to 200k write-offs.

@Patricia Smith Even if someone give you a referral, what meets their expectations, may not meet yours.In our experience, the #1 mistake owners make when selecting a Property Management Company (PMC) is ASSUMING instead of CONFIRMING.It's often a case of not doing enough research, as they don't know what they don't know!

My take on this is to underwrite purchases based on expected LTR rents (I like rentometer and the BP's own rental estimator), but start charging 1.5x that rent for your MTR.