I'd prefer to save my repairing budget for anything that could potentially occur after I purchase.

This doesn't mean that these neighborhoods won't ever change, but a major investment will have to occur before they will improve.

The exceptions tend to occur when you have a small town that becomes a popular place and new subdivisions start being built and when existing housing comes to market (gets listed) they sell quickly.Hope this helped.  

This means no dividends or credit for dividends occur, just the change in the price value of the index.Most people have the S&P 500 as a cornerstone of their investment portfolio: they are never going to sell it until they actually need the money to live off of.

This was an actual situation that occurred with me and him.

The one time that occured, was when the flooring was getting moldy, so he got new flooring installed, after about 4 weeks of us nagging, which ended up taking another 2 weeks. we have never have seen him in 2 years. completely hands off. home insurance handles EVERYTHING. his office assistant handles repair inspections/contractors, and then passes the fees onto us, generally speaking, since he doesn't see these expenses as maintenance, and to be fair, some of them aren't (HVAC filter based problems, garbage disposal issues)why we haven't abandoned ship: Now, believe it or not, the two of us want to continue living here. the house, apart from that one back room area, has its perks, and has even become a part of the growing dallas music scene.

When this first occurred, your best path would have been ignorance and directed toward the HOA board.

Doesn't sound like you're accounting for maintenance, vacancy, and other costs that will definitely occur at some point.

I would like to hear the challenges, successes, and learning that occurred.

Yet with most investors, the expectation of a "10% cash on cash return" or better is a common denominator, when that beast is in hibernation, waiting for the next crash to occur so, they pass on what appear to be paltry returns, missing out on growing their wealth by 8%+ a year or better each time.