I budget for 15-20% maintenance on a building 100 years old; vacancy is again a wildcard, as your vacancy will be much higher until the property is stabilized; for stabilized, I would go 5-10%; capex another 5%.

Eventually through all the improvements the all in budget was 240k, which was still great.

It is very difficult to find any investment properties that cash flow (especially with my limited budget), but learning more about the house hacking made this realistic.

The deal needs to be able to stand on its own, and not contingent on everything going right in the rehab, rehabs will always have problems (over time/over budget)  You make your money when you buy so make sure you are buying smart.

People live paycheck-to-paycheck, failing to budget, save, or invest.

is it 80% of ARV or is it the 65k and no reno budget ?

Being a newbie, I may have some numbers that are a bit off, and if so, feel free to challenge them.So I have seen people assuming Capex of 5-10% of the rent, which would equate to $85-170/mo for a 1,500 sqft 4br/2ba with no garage.When I run the numbers though, I get: $328mo, or just over19%, so I wanted a sanity check.I calculated the following (installed costs):Water heater- $1,000 per 10 years =$8.3/moDoors(8int)- $2,400 per 25 years =$8/moCabinets- $5,000 per 20 years =$20.8/moCounters (gr)- $4,000 per 25 years =$13.3/moBacksplash- $2,000 per 25 years=$6.7/moFridge- $700 per 20 years=$2.9/moOven- $500 per 20 years =$2.1/moMicrowave- $300 per 15 years = $1/moDishwasher- $400 per 15 years =$2.2/moGarbage Disp- $200 per 10 years=$1.7/moWasher- $400 per 15 years=$2.2/moDryer- $400 per 15 years=$2.2/moSiding- $12,000 per 25 years=$40/moA/C- $5,000 per 15 years=$27.8/moDoor(Fr)- $2,000 per 30 years=$5.6/moDoor(Back)- $750 per 30 years=$2.1/moRoof- $7,500 per 20 years=$31.3/moTile (500ft2)- $6,000 per 20 years=$25/moLVP(1000ft2)- $5,000 per 10 years=$41.7/moPaint (int)- $4,500 per 5 years=$75/moGutters (200ft)-$2,000 per 20 years=$8.3/moI would probably need some $ for driveway, exterior paint and landscaping as well, but overall with what I have included, it seems 2-4x more then most people even budget for.

If you were starting a wholesale business today and had a $1,000/month budget for marketing, where would you spend it?

My issue is that I don't have a large marketing budget.

So you have the budget to replace AC, hot water tank if and when they go out and you have the budget to do a light cosmetic upgrade to raise rent rates a bit when you're ready.