I am just letting you know, we will be extra careful going down the stairs for our own safety, but you never know when something could happen.

I know a family renting my house doesn't generally have a lot of extra money during the Christmas season and that gesture has seemed to go a long way.  

I estimate the running cost to be around $900 per month (2 part time employees and supplies), utilities can be around $250 per month and I conservatively double it to be $500 per month for added potential repairs, etc. 

I purchased a multi family own occupied using a FHA loan and now i'm living rent free using the extra cash I have to purchase my second one as I should close in next few weeks.

Working on adding a few of these to my portfolio.

This is your chance to show your GC's some love and send them some extra business for the fall/winter months (and also help out a newbie in the process), so I'd really appreciate whatever help you guys can provide.As always, thank you BP for your continued help with my budding REI adventure!

We had to remove one once and do extra soil testing and I think we spent about 7K total on that.

Look for properties that you can "add value" unless you want to invest only in "turn key".Adding value by rehabbing and raising rents is the fastest way to make money without having to wait for appreciation.

We know that this isn't going to be a home run from a cash flow point while we're living here; however, it should help us save about $800/ month extra so that we can buy our first non owner-occupied investment property in the next 6 months or so. 

So, if you can increase the rents by adding value (renovating to increase rents or decreasing the expenses), you will force appreciation and increase the property value.So, you want to purchase multifamily properties that are under-rented, outdated, and are spending too much on expenses.