@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!

@Joe Villeneuve @Theresa Harris, thanks a lot for taking the time and provide some info/ideas/suggestionsTo give you some color for these properties, there is a 15 years-plan that my wife and I are planning to have arround 5 to 7 properties in the same $$$ range (-+ $200K) that we can rent them around $1600-$1800I believe after 10 yrs, I am expecting to a better cash flow considering some loans will be paid in full, but maybe the next properties will have as you suggest 30 year-loan. 

From my experience you should expect a 10% to 15% of gross revenue for repairs/maintenance. 

What are tenants expecting in terms of updates?  

Did you expect it to be that lucrative when you made the purchase?

Safer assets like a T-Bill allow you to borrow 96% of the value where blue chip stocks like Apple are at 70%.

It's costly but that's what is expected.  

While I was open to carrying a note, I wasn’t going to go that high.Unfortunately, there’s been an unrealistic expectation set by the gurus that relying on seller financing is a viable strategy for buying a business.

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.

Start by clearly outlining your renovation goals, and follow up with an in-person or virtual consultation to ensure both you and the contractor understand the vision for the project and expectations.