Got into the home with a low down payment , made repairs, rented and refinanced to pay off line and eliminate the PMI.

They didn’t completely destroy the house, I did keep most of their security deposit and used it for the repairs, along with some of our own cash.

Repairs: Add a pool ($77.7K).

I perhaps naively went ahead with the registration and inspection after completing purchase of the home, and wound up with a hefty repairs bill of around 3k.

As an example I was looking at a multi unit, smaller building and within 90 seconds of viewing the proforma I saw the maintenance/repair figures were "low".

those 3000 jobs would get coffee and need dry cleaners and cars repaired etc. 

Our current manager is in Huntsville and it is becoming clear that we need someone more local to Cullman who can be on top of showing our listings and taking charge of maintenance and repairs as needs arise. 

We've added natural gs lines where there were none in the building and got assistance from the gas company who paid for all the excavation and street repair to get the gas line to the building. 

There were a number of issues, but the big one was a "repair" charge they lied about.

Use tax benefits like depreciation, repair deductions, and tax-free refinance proceeds to offset income, and consider an LLC for liability protection.