In a recent article on buying properties in Detroit, the estimate was between $75/SqFt to $100/SqFt “and that’s just for bare-bones repairs, and it doesn’t include anything structural like a roof or foundation.”

I bet you could look around and find a PM that charges 10% of the rent and no leasing fee in California, but they probably have bare-bones services.

But I've recasted at year 2-3 resulting in increased CF while I'm barely out the gate with the asset with the goal to leep it long term and use leverage later. 

If you are just buying up random properties, and there limping along, barely covering a fair profit BUT your doing it via neglecting maintenance, deferring actions, not correctly accounting and allocating for cap-x and all the things, well there is a reason lending won't lend, and one should address that. 

If this is the biggest mistake you've made with your first rental, you are just so crazy ahead in this game it barely bares mentioning.

As of 3 months ago, supply was barely there, and a good deal is considered to be something that breaks even.

Bare minimum I've seen is 20%, going all the way up to 30% down.

Lake MTKA,MN townhome$115k cash invested$460k purchase price$30k/yr cashflow$700k value/equity-———————————$2500/mo in cashflow is pretty good for any single rental unit26% COC is excellentBut, the $250k equity gain on cash is over a 200% return, more important than COCAnd, the $335k debt was paid off by the property as non-cash on cashBut it’s barely a 4% ROE, when you raise the rent $300/mo, ($2800/mo cashflow on an SFR) you make an extra $3600/yr.

I barely could tell they lived here they were such ghosts.

@Calla Gruss I've done fix and flips around Decatur, North Decatur (30033) and Tucker (just barely OTP) with great success.