Say someone works in a field where incomes are subject to change dramatically such as oil and gas, certain types of construction like road building etc, these people may work large numbers of hours and make good money but there is usually some level of base pay and should conditions change such as oil prices dropping or say having a wet summer where construction might be delayed for extended periods etc, you will want to evaluate a prospective tenant on a base pay as well as the highest gross income possible.In an oil and gas situation it would be totally possible for a person/family to make $4000 a month right and your rent lets say is $1500/mo, well what happens when the price of oil drops and there is no overtime pay coming in and that monthly income drops to $2000/mo????

I've been considering Dayton as a starting market to get my feet wet in the real estate business, and this is all very helpful!

Dec 23 i get my plumber out there and it ends up being the wax ring and a missing bolt on the toilet on the main level toilet(floor was really wet) fast forward to yesterday i get a $341 water bill (3 months) from the city.

If the "cracks" are in the grout lines, and in particular, in a "wet" area such as tub surround or shower floor, this is a bigger problem as it is likely allowing significant moisture to reach your subfloor and cause wood rot.Tile jobs will typically take three working days to complete properly, so your Tenants will need options for use during that time.

The best way to get your feet wet is just go out and buy a Duplex or bigger and live in it until you have enough equity to get another.

Would you recommend it to someone who is new to real estate and just trying to get their feet wet ?

and am now educating myself on the BRRRR strategy after I've gotten my feet wet.

Get my feet wet with my first investment. 

When you run into this on older homes, just as some that still have wood shingles or "had" wood shingles on it (they used 1x4 lathe boards to support the wood shingles, many times with no underlayment... as the wood shingles expanded when they started to get wet, closing the gaps!)..

If it's just a sink, technically it's just a wet bar.