Most hard money lenders require 10-20% down payment of the purchase price or total project cost.Holding Costs During Rehab: Yes, you'll need to cover carrying costs, including hard money interest, utilities, taxes, and insurance.

However if you have enough reserves, 6mo or greater then I'd say chance it but a couple of missed payments from the tenants and you have to foot the payments out of your own pocket.I'm all for taking risks but I think you really need to evaluate the age of the major systems so you don't get hit with a bunch of cap ex all at once as well as your reserves. 

This would be an opportunity to discuss deferred payments and a 5 year balloon. 

.$150 x 12 months = $1,800If you put $45,000 into real estate as a down payment, you are looking at a 4% cash on cash return.I would consider this decent.If you put $20,000 into the deal, the cash on cash return is higher and its better.If you put $200,000 into the deal, the cash on cash return is lower and considered worse.However, cash on cash return is not the only return you should consider, you should also consider appreciation.My benchmark is trying to achieve atleast an 8% return between appreciation and cash flow.Best of luck!

During construction you'd have minimal payments, either IO or accrued.

My plan was to keep the condo as my residence, but after a year, refinance to fund a down payment on a multi-family property, either out of state or in the surrounding NY area.

Does anyone know a property manager that supports small self-storage rentals in addition to residential rentals?

Let your criteria do the filtering for you.Regarding retention and renewals, the only time I have asked people to leave is when they have had rent payment issues and/or damaged the property. 

The deduction is optimized as values increase and can potentially offset the entire net investment (including down payment) for high wage earners.

This is the equivalent of a car salesman pitching the "monthly payment" of a car instead of the actual price of the car.