I recently acquired a short term rental in Big Bear, CA with a partner that closed in January and am now just starting to discuss this topic outside of my partner and circle since I don’t know where else to go.When we ran numbers, call it rookie mistakes or unexpected events, but we got hit with a blizzard our first month and a half of knowing and the bottom floor got hit with a leak.

You have the cash on hand usually in an interest bearing account to help offset interest. 

The maximum size per system is 5k gallons, and we have class 3 soils.

We underwrote very conservatively relative to what we had done in previous deals and what the market bears, and using those metrics, showed an IRR of slightly under 11%, on a long term hold.We had great interest in the deal, but I had a few LP's tell me that they were not interested because some guys were sending deals with 19% to 22% IRR mostly out of state, and they were believing these crazy numbers. 

There is a 10+ unit building that was under contract and the deal fell through due to DEC records of soil contamination from a previous nearby gas station leak. 

The US stock market is in a free fall and just a few points away from being in a full blown Bear Market, and our R.E estate market is certainly softening.

What do you want your returns to be? Are

I use my Dremel tool all the time as well.Had an old toilet in a bathroom on one my vacant tenant units.The tank to bowl mount bolts needing replacing as the washers were gone and it was leaking.First nut came off easy.Other side was a bear as it came off some but an idiot had put super glue or gorilla glue on the thread after the nut.So I took the dremel with metal disk and cut off the bolt.The dremels are great for small spaces.

@Megan Y. unless you live with relatives, you are inevitably going to bear a cost of housing for yourself whether it is rent, interest, or opportunity cost of not renting a property you own outright.  

Likely, the tenant was already screened so a better indication would be are they paying rent on time?