Shooting for regular grey is tough as your home can come out blue, purple, green, pink etc.

Your first friend should be the search bar on the top right of your screen.

I had to spend an entire weekend to gut properties myself even after paying to have it done before I inspected to see that it wasn't done to my satisfaction, HVAC's going out left and right needing to be replaced, duplex flooded AGAIN when my demo crew did not put the shut off valves back on the supply lines under four bathroom vanities and someone turned the water back on to the house, learned that all four water heaters in my flooded fourplex are bad and need to be replaced, tenants complaining the repairs aren't moving fast enough, got scammed buying a washer and dryer from someone on Craigslist that didn't work and to top it off I got a pink slip from my job this week!

@Keith Goodwine I've always enjoyed the Baron Rothschild quote:"Buy when there's blood in the streets, even if the blood is your own."

Que the soundtrack & the lead bass plays the tune of Pink Floyd's....

As soon as you make improvements that will justify higher rents, you will raise the bar on the cash flow collection over time.And there will be an additional increase when you upgrade and transition from your current apartment.So, the triplex purchase will look much better from a cash flow perspective in the future.Good luck and best wishes, the take away from this is that you educated yourself, took action, used a VA loan and now look to build upon your REI experience.

Just do a quick search on the search bar on the top. :)

This last time, along with the plethora of regular, white business-sized envelopes pre-printed, bar-coded, glassine-windowed mail I'm used to throwing away almost immediately... was a small, bright pink, hand-addressed envelope with a handwritten return address--looking for all the world like a personal note from someone.Of the twenty or so pieces of mail on the table, guess which one I opened first?

While we really strive to be disciplined and live a minimalistic lifestyle (drive used cars/no cable/don't eat out frequently etc); our pickle is that if we are going to have to pay in the $1300-$1500 range anyways...is there much difference (of course we don't need high luxury at this point either) And yes I'm sure we could find something tiny, dirt cheap w green countertops and pink bathrooms; as my wife is a stay at home mom, I just don't want her to have to hate the place where she spends a majority of her time w our children. 

That pink ball on the right of the picture sure looks like some type of pet toy...