Their only interest is in making money at any expense.

If you are withholding any portion of the deposit, you have to share receipts for the expense. 

Generally, if the tenant is willing to accept $500 or $1,000 and save you the expense of filing for an eviction, that is a better option and also serves to preserve the condition of the property. 

I'm assuming "a couple hundred per month" in expenses for NNN, but I'm just at the start of really doing any DD and this is the first commercial property I'm digging into.

You want the net income after all expenses like, maintenance, utilities, taxes, insurance, property management (if needed), if the property is vacant figure that in, and Cap Expenditures (any big ticket items that might need fixing or replacing once you own), things like the A/C unit, water heater etc.

While you're right in some regard, I'd say the speculators were just the tools on which banks built their toxic balance sheets.Here are the 5 pieces of the housing bubble machine:United States GovernmentBill Clinton rewrites community reinvestment act in 1995 basically making mortgages available to most borrowersFinancial Institutions Originating NINJA Loans like crazy to repackage into mortgage backed securities (MBS) and sell to investorsESPECIALLY SUB PRIME MORTGAGES which generate the best yield Banks sold these off of balance sheet within 30 days of origination so as to never experience the penalty of booking a high risk loan (no collections expense and no charge off)Federal ReservePinned interest rates at zero bound to help recover from internet bubbleCreated a lot of leverage in capital markets to buy MBSIncentives for consumers to spend on housing and HELOCsHedge Funds buying Mortgage Backed SecuritiesHedge funds looking for yield had a great demand for MBS, especially on subprime debt (nobody defaults on mortgages, right?)

Things are always going to be more expensive when you are several states away as you have to rely on paying others to do everything for you.

Rates from 7 to 12%We roll the closing costs into the dealThe only out of pocket expense is for valuation and processing (generally $295)Step Two:  The refinance and holdNo seasoning on title. 

Tax breaks will get you 25 cents back for every dollar you spend, not a good trade.What is an acceptable rate of return for your cash net of expenses each year? 

You might have other legal expenses, like evictions, though.Also, I have commonly heard between 5-10% vacancy.Personally, I have tried running numbers on a lot of homes with 8-10% vacancy, and 5-10% for each of capex, maintenance and property management, and nothing ever comes close to working out.I think I'm going to just budget like $200-300/month for maintenance and capex, forget about property management (because that's my job, for now), and pray!