Again things have to start somewhere.....If you are like me, watching all these coworkers, again young couple with master degrees and high tech jobs, making easily $300K to $350K....

What makes it have new degree of difficultly for me is the unknown price of repairs.

Outside air temps have a lot to do with it, extreme differences will cost you more.In our own experimentation it hasn't made hardly any difference in costs, we keep ours within a couple of degrees.

For comparison, I once worked a job supporting crappy software and I loathed it to the same degree, I now work a job developing awesome stuff and there's so much more gratification.

I also prefer larger deal which re getting harder to find locally and agree that it is easier to make money with a 20 unit than with 10 duplexes mainly because you control the appreciation to a large degree.  

Only a new construction or other extenuating factor would make me lower those values - I would rather have a hefty account set aside for big-ticket items than to pay for a new roof out of what I thought was my profit.I would usually balk at paying heat, especially since some of my tenants like to keep their apartments at 90 degrees (not a joke actually - I just about had heat stroke when walking into a unit last month). 

With all of the information available you would think that college degrees would be obsolete.

It really depends on the degree of the bulge. 

Try cutting the hallway heat on a cold day- if it holds above 65 degrees, you're all set.

at the very least community college then to a state school for a BA/BS. then if you want spend the real money on a MBA/advance degree/certificate (CPA, six sigma black belt, etc).