Because the tenant/buyers plan to buy, they often treat the property with care and make upgrades here and there as time goes on.

Here's some things to keep in mind if you decide not to hire an appraiser:1) The "City's" (by this I assume you mean the county assessor) "full market value" price likely does not reflect a property's current value as it is always based on data that is usually at least over half a year old and will not always reflect unique conditions, upgrades (or downgrades), etc of a home. 2) The seller's asking price for a home is definitely not an accurate basis for determining the home's value to you or anyone else (except maybe the seller himself). 3) Zillow may or may not give you an idea of a home's value.

After reading a bit on this forum, I decided to join and upgrade to a ProBasic membership, as the $ seemed to make more sense than paying one of these tv guys ridiculous prices for information.

Shortsale + Non Transparent Negotiator = STRESS)took first vacation in YEARS (thanks to all the BP'er business)upgraded to BP Pro!!

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But this is a starter house and I want to rent it out in 3-5 years when I upgrade.

By keeping separate accounts for saving purpose I know how much I have in reserve in each property and I can make decisions on maintenance/upgrades for each different property based on how much is available.

It's going to need some repair/upgrade and there are other fees and costs involved.

While I do agree that a $1700/month rental probably is expected to have some upgrades, can you be sure the 3-month vacancy was solely due to a lack of them?

.- Less than an hour ago we upgraded our hardware to a monster setup that is faster and which will allow for a lot more traffic.