In order to have an apples to apples comparison, the scope of the work needs to be crystal clear with little to no wiggle room for the contractor to hit your in laws with "change orders".

No one has a crystal ball.We know nothing about him or his business model.

Your mortgage payment is not part of expenses and it goes up every 5 years so you lose more unless rent goes up faster, a dangerous gamble for those with no crystal ball.

Seems like you ought to be telling US what results you get rather ask us to predict your future.My crystal ball has an old Ray-o-vac battery and is leaking some kind of fluid so it's up to you, buddy.

RE Crystal Ball"

I believe we could see 5%-10% appreciation between now and 18-36 months on a national level and much more in local markets like Fresno where I invest.I just don't see anything on the horizon that could lead us out of a Strong Sellers market.In fact I see everything pushing Demand up and I can't see any reason why Supply would increase in the short term so I don't see why prices would do anything but rise at a steady rate for 1-3 years at leastMy crystal ball get fuzzy after that but curious what you all think is the time we have left in this sellers market.Z

I am expecting they will settle but have no crystal ball.

At the larger sizes, vinyl would be needing to be replaced in maybe less than 10 years from the research we've done.We've seen Jeldwen vinyl windows which can be ordered from Menards in $1M+ SFHproperties built or rehabbed by developers.One company had recommended an aluminum window which seemed to be a good option - Crystal series 2000.

Okay, don't yell at me. I know we're not supposed to estimate appreciation but....

We are still reviewing multiple properties and trying to decide whether to buy or not. All of these properties cash flow, all are in...

Crystal and Joel, thank you both for your suggestions.