If the main sewer pipe to the street later broke/failed, is it your responsibility because you “should have just replaced it”?

My boyfriend and I bought a house with a walkout basement (with a bedroom and bathroom), we added a kitchenette, and now we rent out the basement area while living on the main floor.

When I call the finance company I get their main call center who sometimes cannot even find my neighbors property in their system, other times they can.

At the meetup there was a speaker who was talking about his success to financial independent and when he went through his list of rentals he bought over the years it left me with a lot of questions. 1: Most of his rentals he bought in B+ to A area's in the 300-450k range in Florida.2: His numbers just didnt make sense, one deal he posted it showed literally like a +$5/month cashflow only....So afterwards i started to talk to him more and he mentioned that he is not the type that invest in cashflow, he is a equity investor... intrigued me so i asked more questions and basically he went on to explain to me that he buys properties that need a little bit of work, but have built in equity in the deal, but he has 4 main rules he goes by... 1: If the Roof is greater than 10 years, he always puts a reduction in his offer for a replacement roof.2: If the A/C is older than 5 years, he always puts a reduction in his offer for a replacement a/c.3: If the house is older than 30yrs old, he always puts 10-15k reduction in his offer for a water line replacement.4: He refuses to buy houses with pools....Anyways after a bit of talking he explained to me that he buys larger 300-450k houses, because most investors are educated to not buy them, so there is a lot of room to wiggle on the deals due to lack of competition on offers and most people in that price range are easily able to be purchased with a few % out of the deal to skip agent commisions..Example he gave me, he recently bought a 455k deal for 405k, but the ARV 535k, because he talked them down in needing a new roof, and a/c and offered to pay cash instead of going through an agent if he would drop 4% off the price for that... 

however the main point is if for some reason your borrower has a hiccup do you have the funds to step in and cure their first loan. 

The main issue I would have with the number is the Maintenance number. 

Let's assume cash flow is low-to-none.AFAIK:The main advantage of bulking up: More properties --> more gain if there's high appreciationThe main advantage of sprinting: Less money spent on interest payments (about 3.5x less), which also means higher equity gaining ratio.Everywhere I look, people are saying that you should *always* go for the 30y approach.

The outside faucet was also off; when turned on it just dripped a little, so I think the inside main also cut it off and it just hadn't fully drained.

Basements at best appraise for 50% of the value of the main level(s). 

@PJ Kolnik I don't mind the inspections and the regulations are not that bad.My main complaint is that I can put a regular tenant in one of my properties in 2 days.