When analyzing deals, I like to shoot for as high an IRR as possible while still maintaining a decently positive cashflow buffer to prevent me from having to pull money out-of-pocket for common expenses.I've been looking into the Wissinoming area of Philly as well, seems to have an interesting value proposition.

I guess at some point greed overtook common sense. 

Would love to hear what others are doing to reach their goals as well and who know we may be able to share ideals in how we are working towards them if we share common goals.   

Location is real important as well as common area maintanence.  

This is an interesting discussion.I have thought about this in a similar fashion, with just common sense, no data to backup;Residential SFR;Stock, job, house price.Usually, house price will not fall unless some owner have to sell at a loss, quickly.REO is such an example.

That just means there is too small a margin for error. 

That is a good problem to have my friend and not a very common one in this current market!

It's a common problem and question for investors.  

@Ryan Moore the terms of management contracts vary from one company to another, but it is common for them to be for an initial fixed-term and then either automatically renew for another fixed term or simply revert to month-to-month.The contracts terminate immediately upon sale of the property so you would either want to sign a contract with the existing or a new management company prior to closing, or be prepared to take over management yourself on closing day.

At the end of the year charge/refund the difference in the actual charges.Use the previous method but break out utilities for the units on each shared meter instead of the total cost for all meters.Break up each bill as it arrives. and divide it by units on the meter This would add a lot of overhead to the work load.For water, gas and trash service I think it would be acceptable to share the costs based on sqft.I just dont know what the common practice is and my experience isn't in commercial offices.