In the best neighborhood in Jersey City 07302.Features:Washer & Dryer in unit (with additional larger machines in building)Exposed brickControl your own heat Comes with AC units No dogs.DishwasherHard wood floors throughoutUtilities include - cold water Everything is new and up to dateWooden blinds on windowsSafe neighborhood with tons of restaurants and shops Recessed lighting throughoutUnit is located towards back of the building so no street noise over looking an urban jungle

I particularly like the 45% decrease in rent when the heat goes out rule.  

.- Property grosses $15,400/yr- 2 units at $625 and $675/month- He has all receipts and is happy to share- Owner pays for heat, all other utilities paid for by tenants- Furnace is old and will soon need replaced- Electrical is older but he said "doesn't need attention immediately.- New warranty on roof transferable to me- Besides electric and furnace, he says it should be turn key- Could use some paint- I used the BP Rental Property Calculator and even figuring in $65k (instead of $60), lower rent, painting, lawn care, CapEx for furnace ($4k and redo electric at $8k) and a few other cushions, I still come up with about 13% ROI.What am I missing?

The owner agreed to rent for 2.5 months for $1500 (including heat & electricity).

Others would tell you to wait for the spring market to heat up, which could mean a higher purchase price.  

Here are some examples of minimum requirements for conventional financing:Roofs are required to have at least 3 years remaining life.Pools must be clean and operating.FNMA requires the comment, “Water and Power were turned on and operating properly at time of inspection [appraisal].”Heat is required, but not A/CNo serious structural issues.Kitchen must have a working sink and cabinets.Don’t need appliances.

They would be smoking in the house, leaving all the doors and windows open after they'd leave for the night, in the middle of a Michigan winter mind you with propane as the heat source and that's not cheap.

I would leave the dog at home and carry heat if you have a conceal n carry.

Simple.... in NYC, you cannot NORMALLY have more GAS meters than the LEGAL Occupancy of the building (only very rarely will an apt not conform to this and the exception tends to be a separate Gas meter for a heating unit for the building).There were exactly 4 Gas Meters.Once I had seen that....

It's really such a benefit to have someone of your knowledge and experience.I also wanted to comment on the point that I went through 2 catastrophes in the NYC Real Estate Market.2001 - the destruction of World Trade Centers.2007 - 2008 - The Meltdown of the Financial Centers where Ground Zero was Wall Street.These 2 catastrophes did not cause much if any slow down in the wealth building potential of NYC Real Estate for me despite owning several multi-family investments.There are various hedges that a big Metropolis like NYC offers.Detroit, being a one Industry Town (Automotive), follows the same risks that Billy Joel's "Allentown" lyrics speak about when the Steel company closed down.NYC has so many Industries, even when one, such as the Financial Crisis causes a Great Recession, even that did not lay waste the Real Estate that was bought correctly (in otherwords, soundly leveraged with reasonable loan terms and equity cushion and in good locations to protect against loss of rents, etc.)In 2005, I started a program to teach Real Estate because I felt that the Market was getting way over heated when I saw very sophisticated leverage being used by very non-sophisticated people who would not otherwise have qualified for their loans.