You have a lot more work with a vacation rental... coordinating the renters, the cleaning company, and there are more maintenance and repairs due to the high volume of people.  

From day one the tenant has screamed at me over the phone that the repairs are insufficient. every time I make a repair he comes up with a new issue. 

hello all I'm looking for a lender that I can qualify for,a heloc  I just bought my firsts property in Franklin park and it was a great deal I'll be living in it for 2yrs then renting it out I got a 203k loan the purchase price was 134k with 61k in repairs the house appraised for 270k I purchased it in September made my first payment Nov. 15th there have been a few issues that were unforseen and I need a loan to finish and some extra for financial issues that came up does anyone know of a lender in illinois that can help thanks in advance

I work with mostly primary residences for buyers, yet here is my list:1) Befriend a contractor and take them with you to give to you a rough estimate for a) livability repairs, b) updating, or c) to make it really nice.

My number is for big ticket capital expenditures... not repairs & maintenance costs such as paint, toilet repairs, etc.

When you look at all the expenses, including vacancies, unexpected repairs, etc. will it make you enough that you think it will be a good investment?

Property will require some repairs, of course, but my brother is a carpenter and will handle all of that.

That said people are raw after an incident like a fire, set expectations on repair timelines being long.

I guess on the buy side a general rule of thumb is if it relates to the financing or repairs it's on you.

It's also a lot easier to fix or repair solid wood over the cheap MDF stuff that is made by some other manufacturers.I agree with many of the above posters, look at used cabinets, you don't have to pay full price for cabinets for rentals.