This does not even account for your time, overall wear & tear on the property, and the fact that finding the right people to take care of your place and getting ready for guests is a trying process -- especially from afar.  

If I could net $700/month, including setting aside a little money for wear and tear, I'd move forward.

Unfortunately, I learned about how the majority of real estate investors work the hard way....by putting in countless hours of blood, sweat, and tears - trusting they mean what they say and say what they mean...

He was turning over a unit with some minor damage and needed to apply much of the renter's deposit to cover non wear and tear items. 

To each his own, but I don't think it is fair to tear one business endeavor down because you favor another. 

I was showing a home recently that had some wear and tear from the 4 rambunctious young boys living there, and was merely in need of a little elbow grease and some TLC to really make it shine, but was otherwise quite nice.

$600k homes in Falls Church are typically going to be tear downs these days.Id personally prefer a rowhouse in DC.

id=0B5oZn_sjsj...I have never taken a tenants security deposit, but based on what you see here apart from painting the apartment, everything else I have had to do because of damage caused by the tenant and excessive filth beyond normal wear and tear.

well one tip is in the northwest you can go to Les Schwab tires they fix any flat for free they just ask you consider them for your next tire purchase.this is a very fine line.. as I have been in the industry 40 some years now and have mingled with the very wealthy and of course those just starting out and or our laborers that just came in from Mexico.we all have our thing.. before they perforated paper towels in half I would tear mine in half.However my Dad was a little like this workaholic until one day our attorney told him he needs to stop and smell the roses.. that led to him buying a Time share in Maui way back in the late 60S when Maui was really cool.. and you only used it certain weeks so he bought the 2 weeks of thanksgiving and one after.. so for many years that's were we went.. he had to he owned it.I for one am not going to hoard and go through the pearly gates with a boat load of cash.

The worst that I've seen was about $11k, but that was on a larger home and the tenants had lived there for 4 years so some of it was normal wear and tear and updates.