In addition, I would recommend posting your screening/income requirements in your ads! 

However, this home is in Berkeley and I am concerned about destroying historical elements and potential added structural engineering costs that could make the house attractive to a buyer in future years, along with the opportunity cost of construction now versus getting rental income from the house in the next few months. 

For instance, this 10% Vacancy that you are calculating monthly is generally passed along as an added cost to the tenant through a security deposit.

@Josh Oaten   A Short sale is pretty much a normal purchase for a buyer - other than it usually takes some extra time to get offers accepted.  

I would then take out a HELOC to leverage the equity she has built up over the years (current value of the home is about $800k) for a down payment on an investment property or two.I was recently advised that putting the house in a trust, rather than adding my name to the deed, and putting myself as a beneficiary would be smart for estate planning purposes and give me access to commercial loan options as well as residential.However, I want to know if there is a major difference between the amount I would qualify for on the HELOC if I were to apply as a Trust or as an individual.I would assume either way the bank would be looking at my income to debt ratio and make a judgment that way.I appreciate the feedback!

Thanks for the extra push!

He does the weekly rent bc it allows him to check on the property and at the end of the year, he gets 1 extra month of payments ($38,480 vs $35,520).

It may sound nice to pay a 5% management fee but the extra fees can add up to be more than the other company that charges 10% with no add-on fees.

Has anyone had to pay an extra fee to rent out the condo or townhome?

hey just some advice from a plumber ive been doing plumbing for 5 years nowyou said you had a iron sump pit, likely the pit is beginning to corrode and thats the cause of the iron deposits, now a days most pits are made from composit plastics ,another possibility is the piping could be the cause if its a metal pipe [iron or galvinized steel ] it could be contaminating the water being pumped out, again most pipes now a days are PVC either sch 40 ,80 or ABS to prevent this issue, it could be the pump is corroded and failing but if its working i doubt that its that ad if the pump was that bad it likely would have failedother than those the only other thing that comes to mind is that it could be something in the basement that is made of iron or steel that is in the pathway to thw water on its journey to the pit.hope this helps