I am also struggling to wrap my head around whether being our own landlord is a double bonus in this situation, and should make us willing to accept lower returns , or even negative cash flow at first, because otherwise, our $36k annually in rent is just gone every year. 

Hi James,       Did you close your deal with assignment contract or double closing?

So about a month ago we had a pipe burst in one of our unit, water ran from upstairs bathroom down to kitchen and into basement. water remediation company had fans and dehumidifiers in that tenants place for about a week running continuously. their utilities bill webt from being approx $50 normally to about $108 dollars so around double. theres 3 roommates in that unit and each one got a $100 disount for that months rent to compensate for any contractors coming in and out and not having hot water for about 5 days. my question is should i pay for the additional electricity used caused most likely by the dehumidifiers and fans?

If your physical vacancy is 12.5%, your economic vacancy will be greater, perhaps even double depending on the tenant population, the neighbourhood and the rate of decline of the business.You need to understand the customer, and how the business arrived in its present state, before you can determine whether the pay-back on 50K of CapEx - not to mention the initial purchase - is sufficient.As others have posted here, it sounds like the Vendor has milked all of the equity out of the building - leaving the building with significant deferred maintenance; perhaps even obsolete.  

Reminds me of a double I used to live in.

spend 20 minutes with a good real estate agent zillow has pretty pictures but is always a few weeks behind on comps  Chase has a property calculator check it out ',but a real estate agent would be the best choice https://www.chase.com/mortgage/mortgage-resources/...

(conservative estimate, not rosy picture) Do you have the money to finish your house?

Trying to use future rents AND current GRM's is double valuing the rent growth.That's why you see high teens low twenties GRM's in high appreciation and rent growth areas but sub 10 in less profitable areas.

Sorry haven't loaded my picture yet.

Take pictures.