As your portfolio gets larger, the cash flow from rent can also serve as a cushion for expenses you might categorize as CapEx, too.You should have an idea of the life expectancy of the items that money is reserved for.

Lou,My numbers are below, and come with the following disclaimers:Ignore returns % (They aren't programmed correctly)30 yr am and 5% (might be long & light)I forced 15% of and on my investment as a return (I usually do 10% each)8% Management (I dropped this from my usual 10%)7% Vacancy (I dropped this from my usual 10%)7% Reserves (I dropped this from my usual 10%)The Management, Vacancy and Reserves are ON TOP of the seller's numbers, which include those items in their expenses.With my model, I look for positive cash flow after it's all said and done... and this property does that, albeit at slightly lower Return/M/V/R than I like... but it looks like it could be a winner if the numbers hold.

What other Capex type items aside from the roof?

The mortgage you hold on your property is not the item that would hold up a purchase.  

By the end of 2016 my basis in the property is about 30K getting it ready for sale.I have not plugged in a value for the donated items, but suspect using one of these donation calculators in TurboTax or equivalent it would likely be around $5,000 to $7,500 - more than the purchase price.Should I write this off from my end of year basis or would the IRS say I could only write off a small % of the $2,500 as that reflects the market value of the home and contents - even though the county obviously had no idea what was inside...or maybe the IRS would say once I found the contents to valuable I would have to recognize a gain.  

The other item might have been that your home might be more desirable to own than to rent.  

I think that is a great idea, but I would not sweat not owning, heck, sometimes I wish I rented so that I could call my landlord to fix items and use the extra Fannie Mae spot for another home.

I also should have known to look at these items as I've worked in Real Estate for awhile.

Or the CPA might help prevent you from claiming a depreciable item as an expense, which could get you into fine territory.A CPA can knock these things out with one calculator tied behind their back.

If he didn't want to be charged for the items then he should have had them repaired PRIOR to the move out date and when keys were turned over.What exactly is he arguing about?