The home should be fully rehabbed. 2) Have sufficient reserves. 3) Vet the property managers.

With sufficient due diligence and careful projections based on booking history for similar properties, there are always opportunities.

Or are you just referring to maint expences early on when my reserves haven't been built up sufficiently yet?

Many, many people survive on that and find ways to have fun, complete fulfilling lives.The other advantage of saving and living a frugal lifestyle, is that it reduces the total amount of savings needed to retire AND MAINTAIN YOUR LIFESTYLE.If you have a 45,000 lifestyle, in theory with a 4% withdrawl rate, a portfolio of only 1,125,000 is sufficient to sustain that lifestyle.If you are living large with an 80,000 lifestyle - you need 2,000,000 to sustain it.at 120,000 - you need 3,000,000So, if you make 65, and live like 45, you can quickly get to 'financial independence'.If you make 140 and live like 120 (same 20k difference) it will take you much longer to be financially independent.The 4% safe withdrawl rate is pretty well accepted and has been studied a lot.

A dynamic spreadsheet can be useful to stress test the development project to establish the highest terminal capitalization rate that would still provide a sufficient upside to investors.Savvy real estate investors look for markets and property types for which market capitalization rates are expected to fall since a lower terminal capitalization rate, compared to the going-in cap rate, will result in capital gains, assuming that the NOI will not decrease over the holding period.

Money lost aside, that was 2+ years of expected income gone and created a big hole I had to get out of.Lesson 1: While they look official, appraisals are just one person's opinion.Lesson 2: As soon as we realized that we didn't have the sufficient funds to get through the rehab properly, we should have sold the project.Notable project mistake made:-I JV'd with two inexperienced investors (2 males).

The "self-sufficiency" test FHA requires of 3 and 4 unit properties can be a bear to pass in Portland.

Many of the smaller towns, are now becoming pretty self sufficient or just getting bigger but still pretty small compared to any normal "city." 

I always do 12-month terms on my loans to landlords, and that is typically sufficient.

Were the 4 practice exams sufficient to pass the state exam?