The way I would do it would be to total up all the capex expenditures the home will need during your hold period and divide that number by the number of months you plan to own, plus a few hundred for general maintenance and repairs each month.

@Ariella Sherman - Get it professionally inspected by an experienced multifamily inspector, it may run you a couple of hundred dollars per unit.  

But we have the OPTION to rent it out and the let the home pay itself off should the market be unfavorable to sell.We like the flexibility of owning, the feeling of building equity (we do bi-weekly payments and extra principal so in the long term we’ll pay hundreds of thousands less in interest).

Let realtors help you with ARV in areas you aren’t familiar with and when you close a deal give them 2-3 hundred bucks for helping you and they will be eager to help you next time..

I was thinking things like maybe a Nest thermostat or Ring doorbell -- something that is a few hundred dollars but that most houses won't have and will give me an edge over the competition.  

Sharon the guys is a crook there are hundreds of people basically copy and pasting the exact same postings.. they just try to beat you out of your application fee in this instance 1,300 then they will try to get a little more then go dark.. its a SCAM there is no maybe they are a nice person.. they are crooks scum slimeball theives thats all they are.

Whiz kids in their early 20's pulling off massive deals and owning hundreds of units supposedly with no help.

The range of prices isn't that great that saving (or spending) an extra hundred bucks is worth the pain of having to work with a QI who is not adequately experienced with both the statute and current case law. 

Decided to replace outlets and fixtures ourselves to save a couple hundred dollars.

Decided to replace outlets and fixtures ourselves to save a couple hundred dollars.