FACTOR TIME, WHAT YOUR GETTING, THEN COMPARE APPLES TO APPLES.ASK WHERE THERE MATERIALS ARE SUPPLIED FROM.

Our RE is quite affordable and our standard of living is very high compared to other first world countries.

Of course that may not make up for a 20% potential increase but you could build in say a 5% increase and that would keep your properties well under comparable ones with much less headaches.

You just have to rehab the house to the quality and finish (or just above) of the other comparable homes in the area.I think it reasonable to try to compare how much we all pay to redo a roof, or paint 2000 square feet of house; but overall dollar totals aren't comparable.

As I have heard, traditional lenders (banks, S&L's) want you have a W2 to refi a rental (ie long term 30 years, 75 LTV, 5% at this point in time).

Many will use a title company for construction disbursements and they inspect the progress, you can find out what they charge for construction management and disbursements and compare to what an HML might charge, make sure they don't have gigs fees or scalping off the top.Good luck...

I think paint might add a bit, even if you're planning on painting already - because fresh drywall needs more paint compared to already painted drywall.

I don't see any possible scenario where the duplex could bring that much more cash flow compared to the SFR.SFR tends to bring 40-50% more per door when compared to duplexes.

I dont think it gives any competitive advantage to withold that as most people here are professionals and like to compare.

I hear apartment buildings and some people think duplex,tri-plex,quad.I define it as 5 or more units for commercial purposes that will use the income approach as compared to the comparable sales approach and commercial financing versus traditional lending.Each size of building and units will have various things to analyze.You first need to define how much money you have to actually get started and that will determine to an extent what size you start out with among many other factors.