In my market, one of the few I've found you can get cash out each month, here's my basic formula: Total rents -30% for Maintenance and Vacancy -10% for management (even if I'm doing it, it has value) -$100/month profit PER UNIT If your maintenance and vacancy expenses are 30% - YOU'VE GOT A PROBLEM!

In this situation, I would go with an OH company because that is the state that the property is located and you will have to file an OH state return whether it is an out of state company or not.I would go ahead and have the company be the owner if at all possible.

So it looks like I might be moving ahead on my first piece of property and I have a question.

I ended up about $2000 ahead with insurance money.

Joe needs to know ahead of time what his maximum price is, so that he is not tempted to overpay for the property.

As i would say also if your using your formula which is the 65-70%ARV (After Repair Value), and knowing how to estimate Repairs i wouldn't think you'll have a problem.

You could use this formula to determine what price you should use to counteroffer (if necessary):BPO = CMV - BHS Fees - Profit BPO = Best Possible OfferBHS Fees: Buy/Hold/Sell Fees Profit = How much you want to make...To determine CMV, seek out comparable sales data from the previous 6 months for similar properties within a 1/2 to 1 mile radius of the subject property.Regards,Scott Miller

This is conservative, but realistic.If after double and triple checking your numbers you still arrive at a $12,000 annual NET positive cash flow, you may want to go ahead and take the no-money-down route.

At the very least, it's worth looking into ahead of time.

Mike--I've already thought of that (based on your formula!)