Stone half way up the wall and some artificial grass

Purchase Price $110,000.00 Rent/month $ 1,250.00 Closing Cost $ 1,870.00 Down Payment $ 27,500.00 Mortgage/month $ 412.00 Taxes/month $ 120.00 Insurance/month $ 80.00 Vacancy (7%)/month $ 87.50 Repairs (5%)/month $ 62.50 CapEx (7%) $ 87.50 PM (10%)/month $ 125.00 Lawn Care $ 55.00 Expense Total $ 617.50 Expense Total (%) 49.40% Total Expense $ 1,029.50 Net Cash Flow/Month $ 220.50 Cash on Cash Return 9.01% Cap Rate 6.90% 1% Rule 1.14%

Writing offers is a serious business - you need to know and understand every word in that offer and most importantly -- you need to understand disclosures and have a sense of fairness.Also understand that agents DO NOT write contracts (unless they are lawyers) they can ONLY fill in the blanks on a standard approved contract of sale (usually 20-35 pages).You can design your own contract if you are presenting yourself.When making offers nationwide -I always have "Hybrid" clause (sellers love this)Use banking days (nothing goes as expected in real estate deals - you need time to get to the profit)A built-In extension (you need time and don't want to beg for an extension.)Financing clauses - (the sweeter you can make the deal - the easier it will be to assign your contract - we call it CONTRACT CANDY - ask for everything - the furniture - car in the garage - lawn equipment - money back at settlement - paint the house - delayed settlement etc.)A memorandum of understanding - sellers need to understand your motivation and what you are trying to accomplish and who you are - do you have a license, bonded, insured - references - testimonials - etc. remember you are a buyer - sellers look to you to satisfy their financial needs or real estate problems - don't be cavalier about your actions - leave ego at home.  

I plan to have a lawn care company mow and fertilize the grass regularly.

Currently it is lawn and big trees and attractive, but pretty plain between the units.

The deal seams ok with a little cosmetics  (paint, gutters, lawn).

Shutting the water off at the road can be a very expensive proposition, and might trash the front lawn, because it typically has to be done by the town/village.In my case, the house was a full tear out of everything, so I just replumbed it while I had the walls open (I was doing every plumbing fixture in the house anyway) using PEX lines/connectors.

I do not include a lawn mower...is there any way that you can include lawn service in the rent...I'm thinking of trying that but might have to raise rent too much to make that work...

Scenario: no rent paid by half of the house, you show up and everyone's high on crack and the kitchen cabinets are on the lawn.

In the meantime, some ideas for ways to mitigate the monthly losses would be to make capital improvements in order to raise rents quicker, look into repositioning it as a short term rental/corporate housing, collect as many fees as you can (be diligent with late fees, collect additional pet fees) and lower expenses by being as hands-on and bootstrapping as much as possible until you can start making positive cash flow on this thing: self manage, mow the lawn, minimize vacancies by screening very well, make repairs and do turnovers yourself, all the things you wouldn't be able to do when investing out of state.