If we were to put in new units, they would have to be up to code in regards to amount of natural light in units, parking, ceiling height, etc… But since we are connecting to the existing studio, all that is taken care for.

ok I think you get my point here.Option 2 generally pops up on the second or third turn, because human nature steps in and you get very tired of spending $2-5k a turn when people don't take care of the nice things you offer them. 

Cap Rates are dynamistic in nature, so focus on how you can increase Cash Flow potential now and in future projections. 

Assessment of where you're buying and its 'frothiness factor'2 - Your need for cash flow vs longer term appreciation/equity building, mainly will depend on your time horizon with owning the asset3 - Your skills/ capabilities - some people are more naturally geared towards handling lower class areas, tenants, and usually the items that come up maintenance wise with this.The advice I usually give to 'youngins' (I'm 36 by the way) is to take the long view - which means the equity building, and your TIME to continue focusing on your career, building skills, etc - would lead me to be biased towards the property that you felt would hold / appreciate in value more over time.....

If yes, that's going to require a far different strategy than if you just want a few nicely located homes that will appreciate over the years to supplement your day job income and/or retirement.Be sure to include timeline too. 

My short term goal is to supplement part of my income so I can assist my fiancé with some of her grad school payments (she is about to start PA school in January).I think I am only looking for some experience to understand what to look for, but I would like to have a couple of toes in the water around the start of the new year.

House appreciation- Both forced through improvements and natural with appreciation and rising home valuesAND2.

It’s based on more of the distressed nature of the market, i.e personal distress (deaths, financial burdens, etc), property distress (property is too poor a shape to be listed in current conditions), or market distress (which our area is currently not in).

.- Hubby naturally follows pregnant wife back to the 1br apartment (good daddy).- Re-remediates mold stuff (turns out the sellers hired a shoddy/cheap outfit to do the work originally). - So we have 3 separate sets of documentation that ties this all up: seller disclosures, appraisal, and the paperwork from this re-remediation. - By this point wifey is in the tail end of her 3rd trimester, obviously no one is moving anywhere at this point except onto a hospital bed once in labor.- They rent out House A to cover the mortgage, 12 month lease. - Wife has baby, apartment too small, no fault evictions in Oakland are a pain in the butt.- They purchased another home with an owner occupant loan and 5% down a few months after closing on their first, about a half mile away (job transfer to other side of the country = that exception is granted on a routine basis, it being the exact same neighborhood makes this unusual).- Underwriter would have been within reason to ask for a birth certificate to line the date of that up with the rest, but in this case elected not to.Note the unusual circumstances surrounding this.

There might be a legal reason to create an LLC for asset protection - which is something to discuss with an attorney.With or without an LLC, you will need at least two insurance products: one (or more) to protect you from acts of nature such as fires, floods etc., and the other to protect you from liability claims against you, called general liability or umbrella liability insurance.