If you have a road maintained by the HOA then set aside for that in reserves. 

Most properties are remotely managed by owners/PMs and what was suggested would be an impossible and unrealistic standard to set - much less enforce. 

if you buy a random property on Zillow and turn it over to people you have never met, you will very likely lose money, get frustrated, and set yourself back.if you're serious i'd pick a market and plan on making several trips there. 

@Jonathan Small - it  seems like you have a great situation with your current set up.

We were set to close Friday (December 6, 2024).

We have many hundreds of 5 star reviews (see the full set for yourself  https://www.trustpilot.com/review/nomadlease.com) that demonstrate this.Thanks for all the discussion and let me know if I can answer any questions!

I'm happy to chat about the calculator I use when evaluating properties along with my set inputs.

We have 17 properties and the long term we do on ACH, but frankly, ACH set up at our bank is so cumbersome that I stopped using it for the mid-term market.  

When it dies I won't replace it with an ice maker but they were over the moon to get the rental and this is the second set of tenants that said we don't care about the ice maker.

Congratulations to you for setting yourself a goal and having a plan in place to execute it.