But what I thought they said is to figure out the cash flow and then divide it by two because history has tended to show that unexpected expenses (new water heater in yr 1, roof repair yr 2, etc) tend to eat up about half of your earned cash flow.  

Although its more expensive and takes more effort, you definitely get a high ROI on your marketing compared to the "shotgun" approach. 

I make a decent salary for the Bay area, have a good amount of savings and don't have many expenses outside of rent and student loan payment. 

Billing back water to tenants will bring expenses to 37%My offer is $240,000Thoughts? 

Im curious what landlords in the Omaha / Bellevue area do for utilities? Is that seperate or included, and if included how much? 

Take this all with a grain of salt, but to me when the conversation involves house hacking in an expensive metro area like NYC/NJ the bigger picture is more important than the immediate short term cash flow. 

Seems they are either very expensive or very busy these days. 

This way, our interest rate is a tad bit higher, but the properties will still cash flow well and we had enough money left over to have a good sized emergency fund in place, in case of any big unexpected expenses.

I will say most are more expensive than you'll find in Houston though so be prepared.

These are very expensive decisions to make and you want to make sure your partner in life is with you every step of the way.