What are you going to do if you lose your primary income for some reason and the property is losing money every month plus you have a large capital expense come up?

I think of real estate like the stock market and dollar cost averaging -- buying in to a market on a routine basic regardless of cost -- is shown to be best. 

I currently manage one STR property here and I think my 2 year average is somewhere around 2,700/month.

Otherwise, you need to file a 1099 to that person for the principal amount so that you can deduct it from your taxes as an expense to balance out  LOLGood luck.

My house on slab is in a nice middle income area with expensive fishing boats and RVs in the concrete driveways, yet 2 comps were on another area with block homes, hoopties in dirt driveways, and 2 of the comps even sat next to trashy convenience stores.

I would get an inspection on every property even if its a shell . maybe there's something you don't see with foundation etc . few hundred for an inspection should just be a part of the expense of doing a project 

I’m not a fan of including utilities as you encourage tenant waste and your property appears to be more expensive than the comps. 

Updating plumbing, electrical, etc. is not as expensive as most folks think, especially in smaller homes that are abundant in the Detroit market.You also have the budget to do BRRRR's in a market like Detroit, but please don't try and go that route on your own. 

Even in an area like Lynn (North Shore) the margin between gross monthly income and all expenses based on an $800k property would net us approx $-2500/mo.

For my first 2.5 years my average cash flow per unit was only about $175/door.