In other words, it's likely to lose money, at least for the first few years.As others have mentioned there's some measure of safety with property in an HOA, but there's also risk.

There is no way to exactly measure the value of any one feature, but agents who do a lot of business usually can tell you pretty accurately how much value something creates.

Using their data, Atlanta would look like the best investment market which may have been true 3 years ago but certainly not the case today as measure by cash flow and gross yield.

You can remove the beam however the next issue would be if the inspector comes in to do another inspection and finds any structural issues they might start asking for engineer reports and making you do more corrective measures.

Cap rates are a measure of risk, so if you use last years numbers, the risk is zero.

I could measure returns against total cash into real estate and numbers would look considerably better.

This is a defensive measure against future increases that a property owner must do.The deadline to file a protest is May 15 or 30 days after the notice of assessed value has been mailed to you.Also, as an insurance agent, I had seen high percentage increases in property insurance premiums in the last couple of years, sometimes above 100%!

I hope you hit you expectations with Martel and are successful based on how you measure your success!  

If you dont have the time, i recommend letting them do the whole thind from measure to install for a one stop shop.

And saddest part is it's exclusively and wholly due to regulatory/political actions (ie manufactured/self-inflicted stupidity)      For those not in the know, it's worth a read the far too long list of insane anti-landlord measures recently into effect.