I live in South Florida and it's basically cooked down here so I have been scouring my state and found fairly promising properties under or around 250k but it's 5 hours away from where I live?!

Try to position properties around Hospitals (teaching-hospitals work best) as these are great locations for rent by rooms for nurses and students that only need a place to sleep and cook for a couple of hours and then get back to work.

While it's unlikely that all burners will be used simultaneously, I want to ensure proper ventilation in case tenants decide to cook large meals regularly.The standard rule suggests dividing the BTU by 100 to determine the required CFM for the vent hood.

If someone sneaks across the border, gets a job as a cook, not having the proper paperwork does not make him not a cook.

You may want to sweeten the pot by only charging them for some of the equity (e.g. $10,000 instead of the full $20,000).

It will be tax free when it cooks off..

All homes must have: bathing space, sleeping space, cooking space. 

I grew up around Winston, and with speaking to some of the agents that I know that are working up that area, it is still and extremely interesting market with plenty of people putting their hands into the pot.

Take a look at either your Retained Earnings line (if you're reinvesting cash into the asset), your Shareholders Equity (if you have partners and are pushing out K-1's, at the end of the year) or Owners Equity line on your Financials, you will clearly see what I'm talking about, the financials don't lie unless you're cooking the books or doing them wrong.

I would love hearing your thoughts and experiences in how to negotiate and what are the best options to sweeten the pot in a SF deal.