That darn HOA fee eats up a lot of the cash flow and like you said they can always charge you more for it if they need to.

I spent my first year out of college at one of the big wirehouse brokers and my biggest takeaway was how unnecessarily inflated the cost is to most of the investors (and how much that eats away at their growth potential!).

I eat numbers like that for lunch" ....I'm ready!

Or do I keep rent the same and give them a separate stipend for food since they will have to eat out more?

You'll have to talk with a lender at some point so may as well eat the frog rather than spend all day trying to figure out your numbers when the lender is just going to do it anyway

What you will get in the Denver market is appreciation and mortgage pay down that can be more valuable than monthly cashflow in another market.Condos and townhomes can be good but a lot of times they have an HOA that eats into your profits.

Hi everyone, the situation:I currently live and work in California (my job is very California specific) but with the astronomical rents eating into my earnings and the downward decline of the state, I am looking to purchase a house hack out of state.

But if I have to use my cash from the 1031 exchange to do some upgrading, it quickly eats into my c on c return!   

Closest town with restaurants is Walhalla which has very limited eating places and nothing really that is stand out - think a few fast food and mexican places, not much else.  

What I am trying to say is if you don't want to enter the dog-eat-dog competition, and you don't have a hard-charging Realtor to help you devise really strong strategies for winning the sale and still protect you from getting into a lemon, then yes, going toward Kissimmee and the theme parks would be a good idea.