Cash flow is how much money you will be profiting each month after all the cap ex (cap x = capital expenditures aka utilities, insurance, taxes, property management, etc) are taken out from the rent a tenant pays you.

Matthew Terui Keep in mind that the difference in opinion on how to manage them could involve deferred maintenance or pending cap-ex expenditures.

Just trying to make sure my comments earlier were clear, I think companies like Norada would advise an investor not to accept $15,000 in future expenditures. 

Most agents only work with single family homes and have no idea about what the terms cap rate, GRM, or capital expenditures mean.You have to understand that nationally 50% of agents transact ZERO business for the year, and of the other 50% that do, only 25% of them conduct more than 4 transactions per year.

I would think that you could still claim the cost of the door lock plus reasonable expenditures associated with finding a new tenant and deduct those costs from the $200 deposit you verbally agreed to refund.

Your cash on cash should be calculated on total cash expenditures to get it "rent ready", not just the down payment.

Is being on the title enough proof for my husband and I to still take deductions on taxes and write off some of the maintenance/capital expenditures on the rented side?

You will be able to write off various expenditures associated with your property purchased so long as they are business associated.

It’s perfectly ok to rent and live where and how you want with the landlord taking the large expenditures, while you buy rental properties.

A few that come to mind immediately are security deposit holding and refund procedures, non payment of rent, advertising, capital expenditures (planning and executing), vendor management (license, insurance, etc), owner distributions (granted it is to yourself but will you operate it separately or commingle with your personal finances), after hours emergencies.