Run your numbers, calculate your expenses and when you feel you are conservative on them, add another contingency expense (say another 10-40% for unknown expenses - believe me, you will use this money up!).

Investors should always leave room for unknowns, this means you will pass up on many properties, but once you find one that fits you know for sure that you are not going to be digging money out of your pockets each month.

The budget is $5K with another $5K for surprises.We still have several unknowns.

The unknown items will kill the deal, so do your due diligence to find potential issues before you close on the property and dig in.

Bathrooms are currently unknown so I'm going to through in a placeholder of $10,000.

No lawns, but snow removal question is unknown.

What steps do you take to minimize the possibility of inheriting potentially bad tenants in an occupied rental? Let's set aside the obvious answer of, "Don't buy the rental if you can't see the inside and/or talk to t...

Zeona did this without her landlord's approval, and said she lived in fear of getting caught, never answered her phone from unknown numbers, etc.

I guess that legwork is not worth much but it does seem to remove some unknowns about the property.  

IMO, SFR win hands down - - the HOA is an unknown and can turn on a dime to spoil your investment.