Lots of fees can be easily built into a management agreement, such as 1 month's rent for finding a tenant, setting up an online portal fee $150 for both you and the tenant, manager taking half of a non refundable pet deposit $300, $7 online rent payment fee, the list is as long as the manager is creative.Work on the relationship, and as the relationship gets better and longer, you should have a guy who has your best interests at heart, although not a requirement.

It basically breaks down to 1-3 properties tend to do it for free with excel or stessa. 3-20 properties can be done easily with quicken for $50. 20+ properties or landlords who have zero interest in the accounting side of it tend to use bookkeepers or accountants they pay to type in numbers to quickbooks. 

This allows us to really easily keep tracks of our books and keep things separate.I would find a bank that allows you to access all the accounts in one log-in.    

EX:  A lot of limiting offering memos will show a 5% management expense when its easily a 8-10% expense in Chicago. 

Unless you have a trustworthy GC/rehab crew, you'll easily find yourself over-budget and blowing past deadlines. 

The better option is to self manage which you can easily do from anywhere using your phone.

@Christopher McCarthy in todays climate, you would easily have yourself booked up.

However, in the event I (hopefully) get a property within the city and closer to the university, it is just a $200/year permit which can easily fit inside the revenue spread.

A 4 bedroom house in West Summerlin 89138 3-6 months ago would have easily rented for $2,500 in 7-10 days.

People simply won't easily buy a house with previous hystory of crumbling foundation even if it is fixed... or "claimed" to be fixed.The 70% rule also doesn't account for the projected time it takes to flip a house.And no... your predetermined "holding cost" incorporated in your 70% rule is not it.The 70% rule is a death trap and is a sure way to derail your business.Also, if we are both interested in the same property, and you give a 70% offer, you will ALWAYS be beat by me that will ACTUALLY give the highest possible offer I can make. 70% rule focuses on being "safe" and will have the effect of not getting many deals.The right method focuses on property determined risk analysis to leverage "being safe" with the amount of allowable profit (for that safety margin).