Insurance is just an expense to factor into your underwriting just like property taxes.

Use a 20% vacancy/tenant nonperformance factor in your analysis.

I've also talked to a couple of experienced investors on the phone and I will be forever grateful to their advice and for helping me out without charging me thousands of dollars for a coaching program. 

If your cheaper but I have to worry about utilities that I have to also possibly set up that could be as high as $1000 a month, that definitely factors into my decision.Thanks for your thoughts, Brian.

The house will need a new fence soon, so I'll have to factor that into the scenario.I'm not sure which choice is the best option for me.

You set the time limit for this clause, whether you want to be their source of funding for just the one project, for a year, for two years or forever. 

It's really hard to predict where regulation will go and it is indeed one of the risk factors for all investments.

It depends on a lot of factors; primarily the local jurisdiction rules that may limit lease changes (in Portland/Oregon rent, security deposit, screening fees, an no-cause evictions are heavily regulated).

That will be a determining factor for where it makes sense for you to purchase.Regarding waiting - bear in mind a lot of people were predicting rates in 2024 would be in 5% range or low 6s, which didn't turn out to be the case.

All important factors to consider- population growth or decline, job growth or decline, inventory rate and movement- is is a seller's market getting stronger or softer or a buyer's market getting stronger or softer?