i grew up 3 hours north of milwaukee, but migrated west. the fact you're choosing to invest in income producing RE (vs say a cool sports car), is certainly what will get you closer to your goals more quickly.my 2 pennies...SFH vs multifamily: could be debated either way.

Although i have read and researched about it, i have always been afraid of jumping into it, and that's why my savings have always been sitting on a savings account(stupidly enough). but this is exactly what lead me to try the real state venue through house flipping.Matthew, When you say a good exit strategy, can you elaborate.

I can say as a facility manager myself I don't always shop around for multiple quotes, I have several contractors I use regularly that provide excellent work at fair prices and I can imagine your PM is the same.

I am defiant to say a complete Discounted Cash Flow analysis (including MIRR, NPV), is the bare minimum when I seriously look at a million dollar complex.

Tom is definitely giving some great advice, he's doing very well with his mobile homes so listen to what he's got to say. As

But you say "As part of the rent price I'd like to include a cost for a housekeeper and landscaping crew".

You can also learn a ton this way too.As far as returns, I can speak from the syndication side and that it's attainable for a limited partner to achieve 8-10% CoC returns and 18-20% IRR over say a 5 year hold in a growth market, with a conservatively underwritten deal managed by an experienced team.  

Some say a new $50,000 kitchen is really only worth $25,000 and some say a finished basement in a 2-flat is below grade and won't increase the appraised value (it can work the other way and to your benefit as well but that happens rarely).You probably won't meet your appraiser prior to them coming out to the property. 

But if you move up to say a $400k house that rents for  $3,000....the same repair will take up a much smaller percentage of the rent.

The rest was returned along with a itemized list of all chargesI not legally required to replace the carpet even if it was damaged (unless it’s a safety issue say a big tear where people can get tripped up which is something I would do as it’s a safety hazard).