Sure, your first month or two owning this home might be a real slump (I don't know about indefinitely - anyone who catches the virus now shouldn't be contagious a month from now, which means we'll probably see waves of people staying home, and then ideally life will return to normalcy after this initial panic), but these atypical circumstances are precisely why real estate investors insist on factoring in vacancy to your cash flow analysis.

You got to be very precise in this environment and have reserves.

Or, more precisely, they are jacking up rates, but then giving a "home purchase" discount.

Unfortunately people prefer to share their success and hide when they fail, in part because the world can be cruel when you're down however, it is precisely those threads that we all, not just the person who started the thread, learn how to avoid mistakes.

@Alex Olson Precisely, the first sectors to be impacted are retail and hotel.

I am very detail oriented and like to have precise numbers, I understand it may not be nice and clean cut like I like it, but I am struggling with how I can ballpark the cost/upside of renovations.

You'll want a good agent/inspector to analyze the structure and mechanicals, at which point you can get more precise. 8% vacancy is a safe conservative number (1 month/year).

I agree that tenants don’t care about landlords’ financial obligations but I think that is precisely why you might want to remind them that the rent does not go directly in your pocket but mainly into the bank’s pocket...or as in Texas, the property tax assessors pocket.

But I will try to be even more precise - whether an attorney is required for closing is a locality issue...not a state issue.

I think my concern on the market dip, to be more precise, is during refinance.