You might expect that if I’ve created America’s most-comprehensive set of materials on how to invest in apartments, that I’d be encouraging you to just “jump in; the water’s fine.”Well, I didn’t get to this position by being conventional.

In the pre-move out inspection, I found the bottom part of the master bathroom door is badly rotten (water damage) and the paint there got bubbly.

This also includes level above the water table if there is no municipal sewer system available, the lot must be high enough above the water table so the septic system can flow downhill from the house to the tank to the drain field.

Stop and think about the difference between investing in either single family homes or multi-unit properties where you tenants stay an average of 2 years, you only need to collect the rents once every 30 days and maybe 1 or 2 times per year your tenant has some sort of maintenance issue like their water heater or garbage disposer goes on the blink.When you invest in airbnb's your cost to furnish them is higher, your cost to constantly rent them is higher, you may have 50 to 100 different tenants every year and you need to clean inside and outside every unit every time a guest leave.

I figure the fact that it's on water is worth a $500K premium on its own.I have a cabin right on the Roaring Fork River in downtown Gatlinburg that does about $70K a year. 

Lenders are just trying to prevent fraud, but they throw out the fast-moving investors with the bath water when they do that.

They tend to protect owners if it appears they have been taken advantage of....it is not pure legal black and white. 

Often times 1 mo rent for new leases, 1/2 month rent for renewals.What is the condition of the HVAC, water heater, roof and gutters, patios/decks, fencing, etc?  

I definitely do not ever want to be under water on an investment so I use:5% vacancy10% Maintenance10% CapEX10% PM.I understand this is conservative but is this still reasonable?

The property has plenty of room to force equity and rents are a couple hundred per month under market, so growth potential is there.Percentage wise this is where I wanted to be (north of 20% COC), but from a pure revenue perspective I am only going to be cash flowing +/- $300 mo. instead of the $1k I was looking for in each property.