@Mark Eichenlaub I'd like to take a stab at answering your quistions... for the past 3 years my W2 has been a combination of managing a 700k sq. ft. portfolio of Class A commercial office space, industrial, retail and more specifically, right now 30 credit union locations. 

I live 25 minutes from an area with an extremely hot rental market combined with a housing shortage.  

@Jose Lopez:Repairs and CapEx are way too low. 15% combined is pretty safe.You're forgetting management (10%).Water/sewer is usually paid by the owner of a 4plex.Any other house utilities, like electric for common areas?

So combine party school with young students and that could have caused trouble for your uncle.

"AUSTIN, Texas — A new concept debuting in Austin combines condo ownership and short-term renting with the city's first high-rise homesharing property.Unit owners will purchase one of the 249 hotel-licensed condos with the intention of listing their unit on the Airbnb platform or independently or through Natiivo management, a new brand by NGD Homesharing.The development planned for 48 East Avenue in the Rainey Street District will feature 33 floors of fully-amenitized and furnished studios, one-bedroom and two bedroom units.

I will also strongly encourage you to consider local meetup with Freedom First Real Estate Investor’s Association, LTD (FFREIA) This local group has combination of new, couple of years and seasoned real estate investors.

I currently rent the home I live in because after crunching the numbers aggressively it is more beneficial to rent in my townhouse development here in NJ which was a combined property taxes and HOA fee of $900/Month before mortgage.

They can be a flat fee or a combination of the two. 

The other way is to make sure you have good cash-flowing properties with enough equity in them to be able to weather the storm.Or a combination of the two strategies above, which is what I plan on doing.Keep in mind: the average investor who is now all-out 'in it', sinking everything they have into chasing this market will be the first ones to cut, run and cry about how real estate sucks when the market turns and they get their fingers burned.To me, it's better to take some profit when you can, even if by staying in you could have gotten more, rather than staying until too late and losing everything you think you 'made.'

You want a choice to ask the seller to reduce the price to appraised value or a combination of other possible workouts.It could just be this particular appraiser value was low.