Since I undertake a number of projects with passive partners who maintain ownership interest in the LLC, I often have to negotiate this with the banks ahead of time as I customarily solely guarantee the debt and that's my LP's expectation.

Because, when you understand what to expect, you can plan ahead.

I can tell you a lot more but don't expect it to help.

You definitely can't just buy a building low down, do no work to it and keep old rents and expect to profit. 

What should I expect the cost to be? 

Regardless, you might find the copy & paste info below helpful:)--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Recommend you first figure out the property Class you want to invest in, THEN figure out the corresponding location to invest in.Property Class will typically dictate the Class of tenant you get, which greatly IMPACTS rental income stability and property maintenance/damage by tenants.If you apply Class A assumptions to a Class B or C purchase, your expectations won’t be met and it may be a financial disaster.If you buy/renovate a property in Class D area to Class A standards, what quality of tenant will you get?

I am wondering how much expected weather of an area impacts your decision to invest in a specific area.Recently looked at Census data which shows that people are predominantly moving to Florida and Texas.

Perhaps do a case study with a hypothetical deal you think is typical for what you are looking at and compare it to the alternative investments you might use and their expected returns.

Improvements took longer than expected.

Expect rates to be higher than "typical" financing programs - right now, I'd plan for at least 8%+ depending on the whole scenario.