For purchases, some lenders use the projected rent on AirDNA if the occupancy score is high enough and take a 20% management expense against the gross rents so 80% of the gross rents is used to structure the loan.

The area I'm in is very rural so id have to develop a plot from the ground up and have a lot of up front costs id imagine.

Hey @Jamie Grossman - I'm a Realtor and Property Manager in Chicago and Northwest Indiana, new to the Bigger Pockets Community but not new to real estate. 

Looking to purchase one and struggling with the right calculators to determine the real metrics.As I understand it (recently looked at buying a former bnb) you need to treat it like any other STR with your extra costs such as food, etc  baked in to the expenses.

If you had 50k in credit card debt for business startup costs (not real estate) with a 3-4-year plan to pay it off, high debt utilization in the meantime and a 620 credit score - but wanted to start investing in rental properties - what would you do with 20k that falls into your lap?

@Matthew Samson I definitely don't recommend going with a higher cost provider until your portfolio is a little further along.

It’s been an incredible journey of self-managing the property—living in one of the units for three years and gradually renovating three out of four as tenants turned over.

This means saving $2,000-$3,000 per month and living off of $3,000-$2,000.If you can maintain that savings rate and keep your cost of living low, you'll be in a great position to jump-start your investment growth much sooner.

Not efficient management. 

Property Management Fee: Many of the investors want to keep the homes for cashflow and I charge a management fee and run it through my brokerage.3.