I advise anyone I know who is starting off to find at least 3 rentals first and get comfortable with that model.

If you have a good Lender/Mortgage Broker - they can help you choose the right loan that fits your property, your business model & your exit strategy. 

@Kalin Wilson - After implementing an average leased price per sq ft calculation in our model, I must caution against putting too much faith in the number, as it tended to be either way too high or low.

He's given me some pointers on how to proceed, however I'm not sold on his course due to the fact it's not my business model.

Jerome,1) Run your numbers and due diligence according to your business model and analysis.2) Make your offer based on your analysis. 3) If they accept, do your post acceptance due diligence, and if it all checks out, close.4) If they don't repeat 1 & 2 until #3 happens enough you are satisfied.You can't control the other side, so don't try.

Yes, but it didn’t fit my business model at the time.

This model opens automatically with floats as opposed to pressure which prevents rodents from entering the building on a normal day.Different vents cover different areas.

For subsequent owner occupant purchases, we typically model it with 5% for each of those.

The last BP podcast on "modeling" the guest speaker talks about this, so that is a  very good point to remember.

@Bryan Hancock brings up some great points, I would say that a "typical" asset mgmt fee would run 1-3% of gross rents.  3% if it is a steep value add (in theory would require more mgmt oversight) Also, what I have found with many value add plays is that our larger investors much rather prefer to use more of the banks money via bridge loans, being that we like to have a quick turn around this fits well with our model....