Its purpose in lending is to justify the amount being loaned.

You have to know which fees you are comfortable with, that you can justify, and that your market will support.

You can justify it to yourself how ever it makes sense to you.

To me, taxes aren't high enough to justify a buying model around a tax abatement.

If I REFI to use FHA again I would unfortunately be faced with a double edged sword. 1st edge - I would face a triple increase in rates on my current property which would actually put me into the negatives since my equity isn’t that high (only put 3.5% down)2nd edge - buying with FHA at the current rates wouldn’t be more fruitful than sticking with conventional atmAll in all, doesn’t make sense with the rise in rates on both REFI and purchase, plus the costs of refi wouldn’t be justified as well.

Also why would drawers be off the hinges and how did they justify holes in the wall this seems like a lot of damage for them to just expect you to fix.  

if we get rent control as described above with 2% CPI it would be 5% instead),   and explain to the tenant that owing to the work the home needs  (you can provide estimates of this)  you need to get closer to market rents in order to finance and justify the improvements.   

Buying in NJ is very tough particularly given price points typically aren't justified in light of the commanded rent & prop taxes. 

Expect vacancy, if the units are in bad shape you should second guess raising to market rents if you can not justify it. 

@Amir Ardi Abar The better question is why and do the comps in the neighborhood justify the expense?