I have not yet paid cash which amounted to more than a tiny percentage of our net worth for a vehicle.FYI - look up the invoice amount using Edmunds, Kelly Blue Book, or whatever, and do not pay a penny more.

@ricketa Return is just the amount/percentage that came back to you after your investment.    

Go to some of your local REIAs/Meetups and meet some seasoned investors, maybe you can partner with someone, or even better, develop a mentoring relationship.As far as determining equity, you can get that info from a real estate agent, OR when you are pulling your list for marketing, you can filter by percentage of equity. 

What I mean is simply that there is fee based and percentage based and every single one of them is vague when trying to negotiate. 

Right now I pay for all the power and water and only collect a percentage of money from the machines (laundry contract). 

@Fred Heller is right in his explanation of the flood concerns and percentages.

Are there standard percentages that you guys use when estimating (e.g. 5% of gross rent allocated for repairs) or should I be more in depth.

From this data, you can utilize a website bestplaces.net that will give you a breakdown of the percentage of homes that sold, in various price ranges, for a given zip code.

Louis rental market and you'll be dealing with a higher percentage of low-income tenants with increased likelihood of financial issues/ history so you have to weed through more applicants to find a potential gem.

From this data, you can utilize a website bestplaces.net that will give you a breakdown of the percentage of homes that sold, in various price ranges, for a given zip code.