in our area, i've found around 1.5% works just fine for SFH if you manage it yourself & stay away from condos w/ HOA in a blue collar suburb.

I offered to pay for HOA deliquency dues on behalf of the seller up to $1,500.

It boils down making sure mgmt fees, leasing fees, vacancy rates, repairs & maintenance, cap-ex, HOA (if any), insurance, & property taxes are all factored into the op-ex, then we find out what we're capping at.

That's after I spent $500 on an inspection, $200 on a termite/pest inspection, $350 on a survey, $300+ for HOA document fees and application fee...I was pissed off.

Have a hard look at the HOA fees.

The story in short: Our Townhome tenants informed us that we had a letter from the HoA, we picked it up and in it the HoA said they had been trying to contact us (even though they have the mailing address for the owner, my email address etc), dated about 15 days before the tenants received it.

If she's out, and you can find a new tenant in a couple of weeks, does it really take the HOA a month or more to approve them?

A lot of residential zoning and Hoa rules allow for a small day care in a home, even if they do not allow any other business; there seems to be a special exception for that businessYour only means of stopping it may be your lease

I went for BH apartment because of the upside.OK - so I work in title and HOA field, I am 56 years old college grad and I just want to end up in the same position as my sister (owning a nice home and having the income from a paid off 1.2 million fourplex would put me on equal footing and match my own life change objectives.My personal situation is complicated.

I think you have been confused by what your lender said.In residential mortgages there are two Debt to Income (DTI) calculations that evaluate your capacity as a borrower to repay your debt.Front End Ratio: Total Housing Payment divided by Gross Monthly Income (total housing includes mortgage payment, taxes, insurance and hoa where applicable)The lender told you for the program your front end ratio must be 31% or less.