The value of a 1-4 unit is determined by comps in the area and most of the time it will be based on similar homes sold in a nearby area within the past few months.

Year-over-year, asking rents have increased by 0.4% from Q1 2023.The spread between asking and effective rents has narrowed slightly over the past year, suggesting landlords are offering fewer concessions as the market stabilizes.

Probably wouldn’t be as good if there’s not a big university nearby though.

Based on my own research and more importantly nearby comps, they'll expect a shower system with body jets, rainfall head etc and I don't mean one of those panels that has all that on a single panel, they want a luxury shower!

The property is nearby Great Lakes Naval Base, which is very large; in fact the largest Naval base in the United States and the second largest military installment in Illinois. 

Make sure you consider not only what attractions are near by but also the saturation (or lack thereof) of short-term rentals.

Live in the area and owned a profitable unit nearby How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

So, I make more money by reducing vacancy/turnover and having fewer tenant issues more than by collecting additional income from the pets. 

You could have a few things driving the cost:-Location - if the house is more remote the contractor will have higher costs to get out there (gas, lodging, limited resources) or if you are using a local guy he might be higher because he knows there are fewer competitors -El Nino - the roofers we use are all busy because people are rushing to get work done before the rains hit.  

So the question to the community is this: where is there a decent supply of multifamily properties, investment properties, and also nearby amenities such as the ocean or the mountains?