When you factor in the insane (I'm talking $8000/year on a $200,000 home) taxes, I'm not sure how people make any money on the rentals here.

There are countless factors affecting the rental rate.

If you own 5 houses, you're making 3% of 600k or (18k/yr).Add it all up (rent income, principal paydown, appreciation) and one house with that 80k sitting in it will make you roughly:11,100 per year (before vacancies and repairs)The 5 houses (acquired with the help of that 80k) would make you roughly: 51,300 a year (before vacancies and repairs)There's definitely an exponential factor in real estate when you start looking at the numbers.

Consider the PIA factor of mailing and computing the return, rent could be $5.00 more. :)

I don't like that one because it does not factor cash flow and you can get caught up in an expensive property that will not meet its obligations.Exit?

It all depends your goals, needs, market and many other factors.

Hey Christina,According to ConsumerReports.org, the national average cost of a bathroom remodel is $16000, so say $20k with a $4k fudge-factor when engineering your deal (I always round up to the next $5000 when planning.

I am interested to hear people thoughts on the Las Vegas market.We have many new factors to consider when predicting the market in the upcoming future.

Chris, the basics of any loan (and the attractiveness to the lender) come down to two main factors....cash flow (aka net profit, income, debt service) and asset coverage (aka net worth, ARV, secondary support, LTV).

Then I will look at the actual property and evaluate repairs and factor that in from base price point.