It is a good deal.If you have a cash neutral property, the tenant via the rent they pay is paying the property tax, insurance, mortgage (principle and interest), maintenance/cap ex, vacancy, PM, and misc.  

A Plus, a neutral or maybe even a negative to some.

More likely, you can find property which starts out NEUTRALLY cash flowed, and over time, when rents increase these will also become positively cash flowed. 

I have upgraded my opinion from neutral to heavily leaning bearish. 

The situation is regarding a mutual agreement both the landlord and myself made regarding the painting of two rooms within the property we are renting to a neutral color (rooms are currently purple and lime green).

Neutral colors work well, and energy-efficient upgrades not only attract buyers but can also qualify for tax benefits.

You might go cashflow neutral or even negative on the properties, but could probably walk away with $50k to $100k in cash.

The cash flow improves quickly, but the cash flow is so negative on retail purchases that it will take years to reach cash neutral.  

So, even as the Fed lowers the Federal Funds rate, and as we see the spread between the 10-year treasury yield and the 30 year mortgage rate shrink, upward pressure on the 10-year from longer-term foundational pressures will see mortgage rates tick up or or at least hold steady.While this is neutral/slightly negative news for home buyers, it is very bad news indeed for our friends in the commercial real estate world, who are really seeing the best case scenario for the 10-year right now.

For my personal properties, I design the mortgages so that I'm just above cash flow neutral. 5% of the gross income is a good number I shoot for above neutral.