So most through life cycle have 3 to 4 houses purchased staying in the same area.

3) You bring up a great point on thinking about the long-term life cycle cost. 

I am a private lender and also an originator in WA state who directly places capital for other individual private lenders who use us for deal flow and loan lifecycle support.

Especially  the Landlord Lifecycle page! 

If it is really old likely there are multiple additions or changes and some might not be permitted.Everything has a useful life cycle attached to it.

I know I am completely in the minority on this one.But I for one do not think  ( appreciation is icing on the cake) I think  a prudent investor should be looking at properties that have a chance to rise in value fairly significantly over time as with mortgage pay down and appreciation that is were the bigger dollars are made.And Kyle the Reason I say this is over the course of owning these homes 10 to 20 years.. your going to need to do a full rehab gut job most likely to sell them... and that is to just sell them for what you paid for them.. now I know you will be putting money aside for capex however experience has dictated to me its never enough.. so with sale commission etc. if you have no real upward movement in your values and you do need to cash out.. you may take a loss of actual principal to then be off set by cash flow.. but it will lower your return over time.And if you buy in an area that has upward movement and can realistically be sold to a homeowner you have a very great chance of selling your home and recapturing this end of life cycle major rehab and potentially greater equity in the appreciation over time.The only way lower end properties that have static value can rise in value if rents rise appreciably over time.. and since many of these areas are hud reliant that involves our government increasing the benefits ...

In addition to how much, you can also choose when in the investment lifecycle to apply leverage.

You have to work the numbers backwards to plan on a replacement at an appropriate point in the life cycle- before maintenance costs rise dramatically, and a slow failure causes more damage to surrounding elements.If the structure is new, or significantly rehabbed, you need to determine/estimate the design (or useful) life of each major element.

The main reason I am drawn to new at this point is the low likelihood of needing ANY maintenance in the first 5 years; since you got it new, you are in charge of how well maintained it is over its life cycle, and have control to sell at the optimum time so that you can re-invest that money into another new tub in need of no maintenance. 

It's a long customer life cycle.