However, even spending $10-20/unit adds up for each tenant as you increase your portfolio. 

Irrespective, don't go over what YOU determine you need to pay for a property, I've seen people increase their purchase price more and more just to be competitive and get the deal, but then they end up eating into their profits and barely make money when they go to sell.Anyways, I hope everyone in Chicago is staying warm today..! 

I am currently in the process of filing my 2015 tax return (extension) where I can remove those expenses to increase that year's self-employment income, but that income would be taxed at the 28% bracket so not sure if it's worth it. 

I've just started this year and am finding the MLS increasingly difficult to find anything that pencils out for a long term rental.

While humorous, it's been problematic for me because it's made is extremely difficult to figure out what to do with my life.

No, the house isn't worth it, but he'd have a difficult time finding a rental at that price and he knows the house inside out, of course.

Electric heaters you can replace yourself, gas can be more difficult for the inexperienced but easily doable. 

The plan is to increase to market after 6 months.  

If they're 10 year tenants, you might have an opportunity to increase rents as well! 

We had our second home rented out before the closing.At this point and after reading numerous books on real estate, I realized that although we had reached our goal of owning a rental, our finances were completely vertical and I need to spread out to increase cash flow and reduce the impact of a vacant property.In January 2016, I started data basing different markets across the USA.