Would a recession be very likely to affect profits with such an investment?

They take a good amount of your profit but getting some money for a deal is better than just having the contract expire.

If the rental market is extremely profitable, you dont need more incentives to buy rentals, you were going to do it regardless. 

Still waiting on the organic leads to come in, fingers crossed that will happen as you said within the next month or two.  

Now we have to pay some PRIVATE organization to be able to do our jobs.

Some contractors have insurance, some are 1 man band with no overhead, quality of work factors into cost, level of finishes.We created a calculator for our clients to use here in Chicago, specific to our renovation pricing, but even that is just a guess based on some assumptions.If you can find a quality general contractor, pay them like @Bruce Woodruff mentioned, and it will make your life so much easier...you may eat into some of your profits, but being able to rinse and repeat with someone you trust is priceless!

Hello,More SDIRA questions - I am putting them under separate heading to hopefully make them more useful to others too.I understand that I can not 'do the work on the property to make a profit'.

Are you looking more long term profit through appreciation?

Not sure where you are based right now, but we are organizing a monthly meetup (digitally for the moment so you could connect from over the whole world) and there we are discussing a lot of related real estate topics.

Seasonal profits take a little more work here, but generate a much higher cashflow than SF's.