They haven't paid 2012 annual report fees... just this year though, so not a big deal. #3.

To account for that, you either need to have awesome cash flow, or get the price lower to account for said future costs (or get a deferred maintenance credit from the seller)

I own several SFHs in the lower end of the scale (20k-after-rehab-ish) and while those rent for 550$ on average, some months I may see 20% of that in net income, and most of the time like Jon side, when I get hit with something "unexpected" it may take a big chunk of the gross since while the house is cheap, maintenance costs are high in comparison.

Other expenses - ballpark of 15-20% of gross rent goes towards maintenance & vacancy = N/ATotal = $47,000This is just an example I used with the information I was given.

If the stock market can (or might) give me 10% annual return over time, self directed real estate investing can give me 20% a year over time.

You made $10k on a $70k investment in less than two weeks which amounts to a 14% retrun and over 350% annualized return!

Purchase price = 180,000.Gross monthly- 3900, 46,800/yrTaxes= 4263/yrInsurance~ 1500/yrI figured 15% for PM so 7020/yrAnother 5% vacancy = 234010% maintenance= 4680NOI= 26,991Putting 20% down, the balance over 20 years at 6.5% is 1073.63/ month.

Joel Block has a bi-annual symposium you may consider attending and others like Gene Trowbridge also give multi-day courses on this.

I annualize my expected income and add in a 8-12% vacancy rate (average for US households).

Are there expenses looming such as deferred maintenance, old roofs, faulty, heaters plumbing and so on.