House sales slow down between Thanksgiving and New Years because people have other things on their minds and in a cold climate nobody wants to move in the snow.

This does not include maintenance, snow or grass.

Purchase Price $650,000Down Payment $130,000Loan Term 25 YearsInterest Rate 4.50%Principal & Interest Payment $2,890Closing Costs $5,000Gross Scheduled Income (GSI) $62,400Vacancy Rate 8.00%Number of Units 8Pro-forma Income Statement & Cash FlowGross Scheduled Income (GSI) $62,400Less Vacancy $4,992Total Actual Annual Income $57,408Gross Operating Income (GOI) $57,408Annual Operating ExpensesAccounting $100Utilities (gas and water / sewage) $5,000Landscaping / Snow removal $2,100Maintenance & Repair $4,000Property Insurance $2,000Property Management $0Real Estate Taxes $6,000Total Operating Expenses $19,200Net Operating Income (NOI) $38,208Annual Debt Service (mortgage payments) $34,684Before Tax Cash Flows (BTCF) $3,524Key Operating RatiosCapitalization Rate 5.88%Cash on Cash (COC) 2.61%Gross Rent Mulitplier (GRM) 10.42Net Income Mulitplier (NIM) 17.01Debt Coverage Ratio (DCR) 1.10Expense Ratio (ER) Per Unit 33.44%Price Per Unit $81,250Acceptable deal?

For example, in heavy snow country you will have to include snow removal costs and more physical damage to driveways and the structure. 

Pay off some credit cards with high interest rates or ask for a rate reduction on those.These might be small things but then you look at them and they create a snow ball effect of change.The motorcycle is not a necessity since you already have transportation.You need to define WANTS from NEEDS.

Tenant to pay utilities, water, and handle all snow removal and yard upkeep.

Once you start pulling permits the time goes up and there is a LOT of work that can get done in that 2 week fudge factor since the things that will slow you down the most are getting the permits and getting the inspections done, then the finish work is the longest part of the actual work which will be about the same on any level of project (for similar sized places).This is assuming you have your contractors waiting to start as soon as you close, all materials are off the shelf or are ordered with the appropriate lead time (Which can mean doing things like ordering custom cabinets before you even close), no delays in getting permits (usually only a few days but have had it take over 5 weeks), the inspectors come out in a reasonable amount of time (no more than 3-5 days after calling), no major change orders come up, you start a job in Jan and then 115" of snow falls in the next 6 weeks and it is impossible to work over 20% of the days during that time, etc...   

Childhood - cut lawns, shoveled snow, baby-sat, cleaned and painted my mom's apt. houses, had a bait stand at the lake (to make gas money for the boat and water-skiing), lied about my age at 15 to get a cashier job for 30hrs/week in high school, had a full-time summer job and worked another 30 hrs all through college.

Sure I can cycle everyday regardless of the weather (Belgium has rain, snow, ice, hail, sleet so far this winter), but when I have to pay $5000 to fix up a house to get it rent ready, its almost depressing.

(I heard you guys just got dumped on again with snow!