It is based on a common "basket of goods" and if you look at those items they include it is made up of weird things that don't resemble my life at all.

The beauty of leveraging the cash value of a maximum overfunded life insurance policy is that the insurance company is investing its assets for the long term so your cash value will capture a long term debt market rate of return.

I use a scoring model certain items are weighted more than others.

We plan to do most of the work ourselves and hire out contractors for the few items that will require permits.

There are some items that are reasonably assessed(insurance, RE Taxes) from what is provided; however, the general rule is to keep all of your receipts. 

The property was being sold AS IS for $195,000.My realtor walked through and we reviewed the itemized repair list.

I did also include an expense item for Cap Ex, because inevitably that will come up.

It's an older home and the large items (windows, roof, HVAC) haven't been updated in many, many years so one of those items would put the property in the red fairly quickly.It is not a substitute for a thorough rental analysis.

Loans are not much of an option either as I had great credit and then went through a separation where most items were joint and not accounted for on his end.

Cleaning supplies and general items everyone uses should also be split among everyone.