You certainly won't say I paid to thin air.

If your buying a building that’s $500k, you need to be getting at least $5k a month if not more or it’s not worth looking at in my opinion unless there is some other revenue source (ability to add bedrooms or units, air bnb) or you can increase rents substantially.

I don’t know about Ohio but here in California a property must have a heater to be habitable, however air conditioning is entirely optional.  

For the case of the typical OOS RE investor who would be hiring out work to contractors or using their PM’s maintenance staff for all repairs, I hold my estimate costs and process that derived it is fairly accurate and easier to justify then pulling numbers out of the air. 

There are a couple air bnbs that seem to do okay but there is nothing unique about them.What I'm asking for is help/thoughts/ideas with this:1. 

Check smoke detectors and air filters on HVAC systems.  

I pay for the lawn care, pest control, Surevestor, actually replace the air filters, and that's the only fee an owner ever pays. 

A little about me: I'm a two-time combat veteran with the US Air Force.

You’re asking the right question…I’m active duty Air Force with three rental properties, and I have three VA loans.Sometimes purchasing a home that’s close to turnkey may work if the numbers do. 

Traditionally, DSCR loans that allowed STR have always wanted DSCR to be calculated on long term rental rates OR 12 months of actual performance or some heavily hair cutted version of Air DNA and all of these products would price gauge on rate.