I feel as if I'm over complicating things, but being my first purchase i'm trying to account for my inevitable mistakes. i would rather have cashflow over anything.  

However this doesn’t take into account risk, and real estate despite what BP says is actually one of the riskier forms of investment.

Account Closed Thank you all so much for the feedback!

Tenant is required to have a bank account or credit card to pay online.

It's easy to say you should raise everyone's rent a large amount, but that can be a tough thing to do to families and you would need to take into account how many tenants might leave with such a sudden increase. 

A savings account is going to get you <1% appreciation for the foreseeable future.

so we i would just account for the rehab costs in my loan when I'm taking out the commercial mortgage loan during my analysis correct? 

You should be able to compare claimed sales against vendor invoices as a quick means of forensic accounting. 

However, repairs or improvements must be permanently affixed and add value to the real property.Costs and Escrow Accounts The costs of the renovations will be based on the plans and specifications for the work and on the Construction contract for all of the work requested by the borrower.

I have explored the concept with my lender of the $10,000 being disbursed to an escrow account at closing for post-closing repairs but they have indicated that this will lead to the Lender needing to do further diligence on the repairs, perform inspections, etc. all of which will kill the deal for me, because I need to close in the next week.