The key is mitigation of risk here.

However, it will give you a sense of: a.) do I want to do this REI thing at scale, b.) how much time does it take for me to manage my PM (yes, it takes time), c.) are my projections about cash-flow right or wrong, and d.) you get to vet a PM with 1 property and mitigate your risk of a bad PM killing the cash-flow of a portfolio. 6.)

You'll also want to know your risks and mitigants for problems Run Financial Models: you can run your potential rental property through the rental property calculator here on BP or your own financial models to see if it would work for you short and long term.

Even the voucher tenants in DC have a lot of options for 1 bedroom units with laundry, I would factor in laundry if you want to mitigate turnover. 8-10k seems a little high to add a laundry closet in a 1 bedroom, All of your bids are coming in around this same range?

Hi Jeffrey,IMHO too much leverage may be one of the biggest risks.Underestimating the true cost of operating the property is another of the risks but this can be mitigated by the 50% rule: Assume it is going to cost 50% of your rents to operate your property (excluding financing... ie add financing to the 50% cost to calc true cashflow).If you have not contravened the above... then in your example where the market dips 35%... you just hold and continue to make a bit less cashflow (if you need to drop rent) and continue to make your mortgage payments.This assumes that the 35% is a macro event rather than a local cause.

This is one of the more boring / tedious aspects of real estate investing, but mitigating risk should be a top priority of any investor.

But one thing I do to mitigate less solid applicants is take higher deposits (eg 2 months deposit), and sometimes a co-signer (know anyone in the US who would co-sign for you in first year or two?).

Standing around talking to the news when it should have been rent ready by now.Anyone else hear or see things the LL could have or should do to avoid or mitigate this?

This is completely ludicrous of course, but sometimes that's how the world works.In general, appraisers are more liberal with purchase appraisals because they have a contract price right there indicating most probable market value.Because of the above, they mitigate professional risk by being conservative on refinances.

However if it is true there is both good job growth and population growth, that that may mitigate some of the negative concerns expressed here.