Since my margins are predictably tight in the beginning, it'll also save me 3% on the sale of my flip.That being said, it's expensive (about 3k-4k upfront and a recurring fee of about 1k/year), it's not easy.

There is a recurring piece of beginner investor advice: get started!

How do you treat the recurring holding costs: property tax, utilities, and mortgage? 

What goes up must come down....Real estate has a natural recurring cycle.

I want to be able to track frequent recurring problems or know what has been done to my properties, straight from the vendor themselves.   

In mortgage underwriter world, "depreciation" is assumed to be one-time (no impact on cashflow/DTI because it is "added back" to your net number), and "repairs" assumed to  be recurring (cashflow/DTI hit), until and unless you can prove otherwise.

A very common recurring theme I see from unusually successful REI (whose financials I get to dig through as a lender) is that they are also unusually successful at their day-jobs, for those that still have one.

CapEx is not included in operating expenses as they generally are non recurring, but they are very real and equally meaningful to my cash flow and investment decisions.

Do your homework on property, area, down to the block-get to know handymen (unless you are from the few that are lucky enough to know how to fix everything)-when you run your projected numbers just remember to bake in unexpected-hot water tank, leaky roof -don't get frustrated with tenant calls (within reason)-at the end of the day on the 1st of the month you have a recurring income stream

and am looking to create a list of recurring maintenance activities to make sure I'm keeping the property in the best shape possible - and to avoid having key capex items fall into disrepair and incur repair costs that could have been avoided.For context: the property manager I hired will be conducting two inspections each year, where they'll coordinate a time with the tenants to visit the property in person, take photos and video of the inside and outside, and send back a report/checklist of how the property looks and if they feel repairs are needed.I'd like to hear BP's feedback as to whether A) I'm missing any key maintenance activities or B) I have things listed here that are overkill and probably not worth the $.