A good purchase can produce extra cash after paying for repairs, vacancy, capital expenditures, property management, PITI.I think it's reasonable to require a licensed professional for certain things that involve the safety or health of others.

@Jordan Burke  I personally would not take this deal and here's why (figures per year):Purchase Price: $160,085.7020% Down Payment: $32,017.14APR: 5%Revenues Rental Income: $19,200.0010% Vacancy: -$1,920.00Gross Income: $17,280.00Expenses Property Taxes: -$853.00Insurance: -$500.00 (guess)10% Maintenance & Repairs: -$1,920.0010% Capital Expenditure: -$1,920.0010% Property Mgmt: -$1,920.00Total Expenses: -$7,113.00NOI: $10,167.00Mortgage (P&I only): $8,250.00Cashflow: $1,917.00Cash on Cash Return: 4.79%Cashflow  per door per month: $80You're only making ~1900 a year for a Cash return of 5%.

FLIP Sales Price 75,000Realtor Fees (4,500  + 500 ) for transaction fee Transfer Fees and Etc (1,500) Assumption I don't know PA customary fees Acquisition Cost 50,000Acquisition Closing cost (1,000) Once Again not sure about customary PA Fees ASSUMED PROFIT  - 17,500 (Without Financing / hard money cost )Rental Take into consideration at least the following Vacancy Annual Insurance Capital Expenditures Taxes Any utilities not covered typically by tenant (Trash, sewer, well, etc) Take total revenue -subtract all other fees  EQUALS cash on cash return cash on cash return divide by acquisition cost (51,000) and that's your Capitalization Rate 

My threshold for such expenditures is that I want an immediate 50% return on the investment.  

Main expenses for the property are the mortgage ($358/mo), water ($48/mo), taxes, maintenance, and capital expenditures.

If the expense is a valid deduction, it will reduce your taxable income.There are a lot of regulations on whether "fixing" the property is a repair or a capital expenditure. 

Since my partners and I purchased these for cash... all monies were tied up so I got creative and offered some friends a significant interest rate to "be the bank" All three houses are paying my friends 12% interest and I still pocket enough to cover all turnovers, maintenance, mortgage to my friends, and future capital expenditures.

I'd be very interested in seeing if there is any way that I can reduce my expenditures on utilities... that seems to be killing me. 

Now if you're good at estimating rehab costs and how much longer they will last, it would be to your advantage to use an excel sheet to more accurately guess future Capital Expenditures.

Some suggests 6 months rent per home to help cover capital expenditures but it really depends on your risk tolerance.For us, we keep 6 months of our J.O.B. income for our personal savings and try to keep 6 months of PITI for each of our rental homes in a business savings.