Going with Brandon's idea again, I estimate 10% of monthly rent to go towards PM and another 10% for vacancy which is very conservative since I expect to fill the house with a 1-year lease (either a student or family)

look the address up at the tax office and on a few sites to get a feel of an estimate.

Jay Scott's books on flipping houses/estimating rehab costs are awesome.

Scott The Book on Flipping Houses, The Book on Estimating ReHab Costs http://www.biggerpockets.com/flippingbookDownload BP’s newest book here some good due diligence in Chapter 10.

Should I plan on having a decorator look at potential flips with me in order to estimate rehab design and budget?

In the event you sell, all of the accumulated passive losses will get written off in order to lower your overall tax scenario.If you use the same tax preparer (or the better self prep software packages), those passive losses should get "saved" every year and then will be available to use when applicable.

Scott The Book on Flipping Houses, The Book on Estimating ReHab Costs http://www.biggerpockets.com/flippingbookDownload BP’s newest book here some good due diligence in Chapter 10.

Scott The Book on Flipping Houses, The Book on Estimating ReHab Costs http://www.biggerpockets.com/flippingbookConsider checking out HUD homes for small multi's owner occupied gets first crack.

Scott The Book on Flipping Houses, The Book on Estimating ReHab Costs http://www.biggerpockets.com/flippingbookDownload BP’s newest book here some good due diligence in Chapter 10.

Scott The Book on Flipping Houses, The Book on Estimating ReHab Costs http://www.biggerpockets.com/flippingbookConsider checking out HUD homes for small multi's owner occupied gets first crack.