For instance, my first year of investing is 2018 and by years end total marketing cost will be $7,000.

Best bet, go to your bank that you normally use.

That's honestly the best way. if you know agents like me are on here and we can help you screen agents to find a good one, that's your best bet. let me know how i can help

I am not sure if I need to be shooting for a ratio or percentage of the total price of the home that would be a typical rule of thumb or not.

List price: $350,0004 units: 3 x 2 bd/1.5ba 1 X 2bd/2baI figured $1100/mo for rent for the 3 1.5 baths and $1150 for the 2 bathTotal Income: $4450I used Zillow and my assessor's website for tax info (although I have no idea what FCV and LPV are)Tax: $95Vacancy: $230 (5%)Repairs: $230 (5%)CAPEX: $230 (5%)Property management: $450 (10%)Mortgage: $1922 (using an FHA loan at 3.5%)PMI: $280Insurance: $70 (based on zillows numbers)Total Expenses $3507Cashflow: $4450- $3507 = $943Down payment: $14000Closing costs: $4000 (I definitely need help with this number)Rehab: $10,000 (pulled this out of my butt, only 1 picture of the outside)Total cash in: $28,000Cashflow for the year= $11316COC ROI= 40.4%I'd just like a little help to figure out if I'm even in the ballpark or if I really need to make some big adjustments to my numbers.

> The BP podcasts make me so motivated and then depressed because I keep getting stuck at some point in the process.Yes, I can totally appreciate that.

Houston Real Estate Highlights in August(* asterisk denotes that the “Harvey effect” has been removed): Single-family home sales rose 7.6 percent year-over-year, with 5,844 units sold*;Days on Market (DOM) for single-family homes declined slightly to 49 days;Total property sales jumped 36.8 percent, with 9,978 units sold;Total dollar volume increased 40.1 percent to $2.86 billion;The single-family home median price rose 3.0 percent to $236,870, reaching an August high;The single-family home average price also achieved an August record, rising 1.9 percent to $300,670;Single-family homes months of inventory was at a 4.1-months supply, down from 4.3 months last August and equal to the national level;Townhome/condominium sales rose 12.3 percent year-over-year, with 457 units sold in 2018 compared to 407 one year earlier*;Leases of single-family homes rose 7.6 percent with the average rent up 3.4 percent to $1,926*;Volume of townhome/condominium leases fell 8.6 percent with the average rent up 5.5 percent to $1,639*HAR https://www.har.com/content/newsroom?

I’d like to keep total cost no more than $75 per square foot. 

The heat is always the best bet against bed bugs.

You could have windows to replace, roof, siding, sidewalks, underground utilities, dead tree removal or trees to tall or close to buildings, parking lot replacement or repair, amenities to add or replace, etc.