I think the formula comes from what takes up most of your time by managing these tenants, in the last few months, what took up more time than what you are willing to allocate?

Holdfolio is allocating all earnings on this portfolio until it is performing at 100% occupancy. 

Expenses must be allocated based on personal days occupied vs. tenant days occupied.

I'm thinking that the $2,000 allocated to online marketing would be better spent marketing for cash investors to sell properties to than for sellers. 

I am allocating part of the security deposit for cleaning and trash removal.Looking ahead, I will be much more rigorous about screening the tenants and enforcing my lease. 

While multi-family units can offer higher cash flow, they often come with increased management complexity and tenant turnover, aligning with your goal to minimize hassle.Investment Allocation: With a budget of $300k, diversifying across several SFHs in Raleigh could maximize both cash flow and appreciation potential.

It is not uncommon to allocate 3 to 4 months rental income just for taxes.  

I am more than happy to share my preferred lenders that specialize in investment properties, home inspectors, contractors, landlord and builders risk insurance carriers, and CPA's that know to do cost allocation studies with my investor clients (that's how you know you have a CPA that knows real estate investing accounting).

There could be other issues as part of that downpayment will be allocated to capital gain as well which could be as high as 23.8% plus state rates.

Most of us accept the concept of a marketing budget to explain how we allocate time and money to find buyers and sellers, including through targeted cold calls.