I've been thinking a lot about Florida and I believe it's a great state for future potential investments such as purchasing and renting out (utilizing the BRRRR Method Of Course).

I used my house hacking here in Los Angeles and utilized the equity to buy out of state.

Thus, I think that we could see national rents rising in the high single digits, or possibly surging as much as 10% in 2026 vs 2025, with some markets seeing rents rise even faster than that - Austin, TX regaining much of the lost growth in 2024 and 2025, for example.

Utility deposits?

Welcome to BP - great contingent of people in the Dallas area both here digitally and in the in-person meetup community!

From experience with mechanical and utility issues in distressed properties, I would also wonder why the breakers were removed.

@Kyle Trotman If you purchased with a hard money loan conventional lenders will require extensive seasoning to utilize the new appraised value for cash out. 

In Chicago you request a CHA Burden sheet and that gross number minus utility allowance will be what you get in addition to making sure bedroom size is adequate.  

A lot of our customers use Digital Trust for self-directed IRA  

Specifically, I’d love to hear about best practices for managing shared spaces, screening tenants, and setting up house rules.Additionally, I plan to split the utilities among the tenants—any advice on how to handle this efficiently would be greatly appreciated!