I have been in corporate america for ~ 40 years and looking at my next chapter - retirement in about 5-9 yrs. 

The appraiser can incorporate that type of information into an appraisal as "extraordinary assumptions".

Without sub-meters I think it makes a lot of sense to incorporate as many water efficient appliances as possible.

Let me know.I've already incorporated, and am in the process of finalizing some unanticipated red tape.

Yes, should work fine.Please keep in mind that this is just a single metric regarding leverage (there are other interesting ones such as DSCR, which is basically the same thing except it incorporate all payments to debt service including principal in denominator) and don't forget to do your homework on liquidity and cash reserves.Cheers!

My general rule of thumb is that if you have to ask if you should or should not be doing something, then you probably shouldn't.During my 30+ years in corporate life, one of the things they drilled into us is this: before you say something or write anything in a memo, imagine how it would sound in a deposition.

My personal preference is that the LLC owning the property is incorporated in the state where the real estate is. 

Could anyone who has there real estate business incorporated answer this question: was it hard to finance your first deal and how did you end up doing it?

Investors that are not incorporated publicly have no accounting requirement, except as required for taxes which doesn't require a certain method.Real business owners follow Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), your bookkeeper or account will even if you aren't a public traded company.

It was my understanding that Cap rate was NOI/purchase price and ROI incorporates financing.