For a tenant who has only lived there for a year, the expectations for normal wear and tear are lower.

Every investor is expecting day 1 positive cashflow.2.

There's a ton of blue collar and healthcare jobs that are providing a tenant demand for houses in that rent range, and more to come with Blue Oval City expecting to be operable in late 2027. 

A key lesson was the importance of balancing renovation costs with market expectations.

I'd expect prices to continue to appreciate, so the longer you delay, the more expensive things may be. 

Setting clear expectations can help you pretty much everywhere as well.

In a city like Philly, you will face many challenges - you need to learn the market and know the neighborhood and the block and make sure all of your numbers are within reason, you need very reliable contractors, you need a to understand the permit process, you need to be familiar with market expectations. 

This either sounds like a seller looking to "retire" and liquidate his holdings or a Section 8 owner that hasn't kept the property (or rents) up to market levels.So, based on the numbers you're using, what return (IRR, Equity Multiple, or ConC) are you estimating you'll generate over your expected holding period?

@Serge Hounkponou Recommend you first figure out the property Class you want to invest in.Property Class will typically dictate the Class of tenant you get, which greatly IMPACTS rental income stability and property maintenance/damage by tenants.If you apply Class A assumptions to a Class B or C purchase, your expectations won’t be met and it may be a financial disaster.If you buy/renovate a property in Class D area to Class A standards, what quality of tenant will you get?

We found a 188 unit deal in Columbia South Carolina and Ryan had actually already underwritten it but he missed the fact that the T 12 actually only had 11 months in it instead of 12 so we caught it and Multi Family Mindset’s internal underwriter really loved the deal.