They're fine for buying a turnkey, older home that gets "spruced up" and comes with a 1-year warranty on their repairs.

That’s what I’m talking about.. having people on the ground who know their turf and can spot trouble before it smacks you in the face.From what I’ve heard, outfits like Northwest Preferred Property Management or Umbrella Properties in Eugene aren’t just running the numbers.. they’ve seen the weird mid-season repairs and the tenant personalities you’ll never read about in a textbook.

As mentioned elsewhere, breakeven on cash flow is not the same as break even for taxes.Let's make some assumptions:Rental income = $1000Mortgage payment = $400 - but $300 is interest and $100 is principalOther expenses (repairs, advertising, utilities, etc) = $600Depreciation = $250The above scenario creates a break even from a cash flow perspective, however the tax scenario looks like this:Rental income minus the mortgage interest (principal is not deductible) minus the other expenses minus depreciation looks like this:1000-300-600-250 = $150 LossIf your income is over $150,000, then you cannot deduct that loss, but you can roll it over to future years. 

You might hit a few bumps in the road...tenants who imagine due dates are more like suggestions, or unexpected repairs that crop up at the worst possible moment...but that’s part of the ride.

You may need to disclose that you repaired this to buyers and want to include more detailed information about what was done.

In this instance I would tell the buyers I wasn’t fixing it as long as there wasn’t some other reason to compel me to do the repairs.

Deductible expenses include a proportional share of mortgage interest, property taxes, insurance, utilities, and repairs.

When the transaction closes, the purchase is funded, and we set aside additional funds in an escrow account to pay predetermined professionals to make any required or desired repairs or upgrades to a property AFTER the buyers settle on the purchase transaction.

Getting seller to do repairs. 

However, the risk of significant repairs is not to be taken lightly.