Decent homes are selling extremely quickly today, and many are selling for more than the asking price.

I'm sure those have probably shot up to $300k+ by now but yea, I would own in the Poconos 100% even though I've never visited in person.

He has decent equity in his house at a low rate and was curiousCurtis:  Thanks for the help!  

I want to make sure that the offer makes sense: Details: SFH, 4/2Cash out = $133,000 @ 70%LTV ($190,000 ARV)Rehab costs: $47,800Holding costs & loan costs: $14,600Offer = $74,000With this offer, I would be eating some, or really all, of the loan costs and if I could get the tenant to live in the property while the rehab is going on (maybe an outlandish thing to assume), this would cover the holding costs.Does this sound like a decent deal? 

Since you mentioned you're in the country and decent comps are hard to come by, I would put money on the agent knowing that one comp was crap but they decided to send it anyway.

My question: Is 10% of rent for maintenance, and 5% of rent for Cap Ex a decent approximation for a single family home in a good area, built in the last 20-25 years?

The cashflow is decent as a midwest city, and there are some really nice suburbs as well.I'm mostly concerned with the future of Chicago, and if it will continue losing population, or if things are expected to reverse/ level out over time.

You can try to 1031(to avoid capital gains) into a DST (no hassle) or buying a bite size NNN property which has no landlord management(but the potential for vacancy and releasing).I like the private money route, especially if you keep the LTV low, although I'm not sure many would go for 60% at a private lender rate, but worth a shot! 

Absolutely I will give them plenty of notice; if not to make sure everybody is on the same page, then just to be a decent human.

I have been doing house hacking for a few years and have decent experience with property management as I did it professionally for years and have been a landlord for 5 years.