Be careful not to make assumptions about what holds true across different markets. 

Feel free to substitute properties or modeling assumptions into this logic.The investors on BP that keep the snowball rolling create equity via adding value rather than just purchasing cash flow.  

(I am under the assumption for tax reasons having them in an LLC is much more preferable.)

Once you've determined your budget, work backwards from there with the assumption that you'll be putting 25% down on the property, and that you need to budget for potential repairs, closing costs, and basic investment start-up costs.When you have your budget, or possibly before you've determined a budget, I would contact a real estate agent who can sit down with you and start looking at price points in different areas that you are interested in.

Are your property tax assumptions based on the $145k or $169k valuation?

I based this also on the assumption that he might not already have a handyman that he typically uses because if he does, I'd imagine he would just ask that guy.

Woahh youd make a horrible scientist with these unjustified assumptions!

If you see my post above, you can see how far fetched they are being in escrow amounts.My assumption is that this was only for the first estimate and that the final estimate will be more reasonable.I swear to you the numbers and line items are above are whats in the Closing Disclosure.  

I think it's clear when you say you are contributing 6% of your salary (with the assumption you are making less than 100k post-tax), that you are contributing around or less than the max annual Roth IRA (5.5k) contribution to your Roth 401k.

Again, this is an assumption only an ignorant person would make.