That is, aside from taxes and insurance, what are your numbers for vacancy, maintenance, cap ex/reserves, waste management, etc.?

You have to use money to give the seller "moving money", money to bring the loan current if they are behind, money for title reports, money for escrow, money for advertising, money for making the payments after you take ownership, money for repairs if needed, money for cleaning the property, money in reserve in case everything falls apart (just to mention the big ones, there are also Insurance, water, electricity, power, property taxes and so on).

In short, you want to buy in a building with many units, modest condo fees, millions in cash reserves, permissive of long-term rentals, and not anywhere near the community's limit of percentage of units rented out.

@Jaocb Kelly in theory yes, however the lender will probably only look at 70-80% of the rental income and they may want to see some cash reserves to carry that rental should you need to make repairs.

I'd like to find a deal using creative financing, but also don't want to be stuck holding a property if we don't have the capital or reserves to properly work it.

Yeah, unfortunately the only strategy I currently see working in BC is through densification, and you need some serious reserves to be doing that at B.C. prices.

It’s good to hear and get confirmation that a management company is the best way to go

I am considering setting up a trust. It would be for kids of a relative and it would be a grantor trust or revocable living trust (not sure which). The trustee would be me.If I place an LP fund which holds an LLC real...

@Mayer M.You might want to consider looking into a Qualified Opportunity Fund(QOF) or structuring the sales via installment sales.One thing you may want to confirm before selling the houses if the sales are indeed considered capital gain. 

@Ethan Adams I do agree with Dave, I wouldn't leverage that heavy unless it was a can't-miss deal, or I had sufficient reserves.