It's clear one can't rely on initial cash flow alone and must project future cash flows; as others point out costs could grow faster than rents (e.g. rust belt towns with declining population).Where I'd be interested to hear your thinking is on reserves and the liquidity of the properties you buy.e.g. with hindsight you can always point to which of these two properties provided a greater total return over ownership:a) zero/low cash flow property (on day one) that pays down mortgage, but appreciates and cash flow builds as rents outpace costs (i.e. your Brooklyn example)b)  higher cash flow property (from day one), but lower appreciation and lower growth of cash flow as rents and costs grow with inflation only (e.g. a stable Midwest city perhaps)I would tend to agree that if you can get it "right" and can predict rent growth etc then property a) likely offers potentially higher returns.The difficulty I have is thinking about the risk embedded in making these predictions upfront coupled with the inherent illiquidity of property.

If she is evicted she will have difficulty renting in the future.

You will have even more difficulty returning his investment and returns in cash. 

To me, they were "vultures"... even though you are not a vulture,that is the mindset of those who are in such financial difficulties.

The water and sewer bill will ALWAYS remain in the Owner’s name therefore the ultimate responsibility of the water and sewer bill will ALWAYS fall onto the Owner.See http://www.clevelandwater.com/customer-service/faq for more info.Holton-Wise does not charge the tenants for water and sewer usage because of all the legal difficulties put in place by Ohio Landlord Tenant Law and the City of Cleveland, Division of Water.

I have been having some difficulty renting this home.

Ruth,Steven gave your post more effort than most of us will due to the difficulty in reading through your "shorthand"...First, I recommend using full sentences without abbreviations.

There's always difficulties in any sort of investing.

Also, it’s in the same format for every county so it takes the guessing and difficulty out of scrubbing the data once you download it.

Some weird locations of flood plainsJessup/Eynon/Archbald/Jerymn - You can find some deals with very low taxes, but you're starting to get a decent amount away from Scranton and may have some difficulty filling vacancies with quality tenants.Any who, those are my thoughts.