Most PM software allows late fees to be charged.Ours allows us to absorb the cost of tenants paying electronically thru the software - it usually wants to charge tenants, but we want them to pay electronically.We manually charge tenants a Processing Fee for mailing in their rent, a slightly lower Processing Fee for depositing to our bank.Your success will depend on the Class of your tenants.

We got started, but they hired an appraiser and charged me $750, while typically appraisal costs around $500.

Waste of time, huge room for error and zero reason for a customer to do this.....any Contractor worth his salt will have better pricing/quality/selection on the big stuff and will have guys on his crew that can do those dreaded 'parts runs' for the little stuff. 

I can promise you that my first deal was TERRIBLE, but I lived at a reduced monthly cost to living than renting/buying a single family and that is what mattered. 

I believe this is what they call a pier and beam foundation which I have no experience with so I have no idea what it would cost to fix. 

While this can maximize leverage and ROI, challenges include getting lender approval for seller financing, high carrying costs, and the pressure of short-term loans.

Although the list may seem intensive, I look at it like this: The total cost of all these items can be much lower than the cost to repair a hidden surprise after purchasing a property to flip. 

Not the intention, just being very direct here: I am not going to show those numbers for 2 reasons.1) if I did ( and I would blow you away if I did), it would only cause people to misunderstand what I am trying to teach and 2) I don't have to show you or anyone anything.

So the only money out of pocket is any closing costs that don't get worked into a new loan.

There is a cost to that and the potential for having to spend more to fix things up.