The title company and lender have both requested itemized lists of everything we've done to the property because we're netting so much after such a short amount of time.

I personally use 20% for the type of houses you describe above.In addition, while maintenance costs usually cover routine items, you should probably consider accounting for capital expenditures as well i.e.

You can also set up key word alerts to keep up on items of interest.

Without itemizing every line item I'm about $117k-118k into the house right now.

(I am doing most of it myself against good advice, but I am improving) It sometimes takes a long time for something to truly sink in, so I like to reread items.

When you use words like its difficult and its not that easy your already setting up a mental barrier that will prevent new real estate investors for starting out.The only thing about this thread that i don't like, is that chris has a capture page that will make him money if we sign up.

Between the cash on cash return, principal pay down, equity capture at purchase, appreciation potential, and tax advantages, the potential is unlimited!

Although you may not want to deal with tenants or the other various items that go along with rental properties.

So - while we account for the various items allowed for in the 50% rule, we just do the math on each property we are at all serious about.One issue I have with that particular rule of thumb is that we do conventional 80/20 financing with 15 year amortization.

That 50% thingy is a lot closer to reality than the $ 16,000 Net.Each unit vacant for one month, is half of your total expenses, without fix up, repair, taxes, insurance, reserves for major items, etc., etc., etc.