Breaking even is partly due to inefficient management, but also high taxes(Chicago) and the age of the building.  

Prohibits an RGB from setting longevity rentincreases.Part D: Repeals High Rent Deregulation, which allows units to be removedfrom rent regulation upon vacancy after the rent achieves a high rentthreshold; and Repeals High Income Deregulation provisions, which allowsunits to be removed from rent regulation if a tenant's income is$200,000 or more for two consecutive years.Part E: Sets the Preferential Rent as the base rent for the duration ofa tenancy, but preserves regulatory agreements that allow for legal rentincreases.Part F: Allows HCR or a court of competent jurisdiction to look back at6 years of rent history when determining rent overcharges, or a longerlook back period if it is reasonably necessary to make a determination.Eliminates the ability of an owner to escape punitive damages where theovercharges were willful.Part G: Enacts the "Statewide Tenant Protection Act of 2019" to allowany city, town or village to opt-in to ETPA and provides the appointmentof the members of the new RGBs to be done by the opting-in munici-palities.Part H: Amends the maximum collectable rent increase formula thatapplies to Rent Control units to set annual increase at either an aver-age of the last five years of RGB increases, or 7.5%, whichever is less;and prohibits Fuel Pass-Along charges for rent-controlled tenants.Part I: Reforms the personal use exclusion to limit the number of unitsan owner can take out of rent regulation, and requires the use to be animmediate and compelling necessity for use as a primary residence.Part J: Ensures that units rented by nonprofits to provide housing tohomeless or previously homeless people revert to rent regulation at theend of the use by the nonprofit, and that the previously homeless personor persons are treated as tenants for purposes of the law.Part K: Major Capital Improvement (MCI) & Individual Apartment Improve-ment (IAI) Reforms*Limits approvals to work for essential building functions and otherimprovements (e.g, heat, plumbing, windows, roofing); exclude mainte-nance.

Very inspiring to see others my age doing this. 

My mindset going into this one was to learn as much as possible and make a decent profit, while considering any failures as just tuition to the School of Hard Knocks..I completed this flip with two other partners who are also the same age.

Anyone an idea if i can use the garage age as property age?

And example would be appliances, if you’re replacing appliances you want to use a nice package maybe even stainless if the market can return that investment however you do not need to go to top of the line KitchenAid or Viking, Vulcan subzero etc.In terms of systems if you’re talking single family every property is different and what you do will depend on the age, style, condition and location of property etc.  

They are often jaded by bad experiences and age.

This item should have been included in the initial budget due to its age, but we felt it was functioning well (no pun intended) so it wasn't included.

I didn't come from money and was tought the value of hard work and I WANT to do most of the work myself, although I don't expect to have to do much, so I commend you for instilling that in your son at an early age!

Following up on what Dennis said, depending on the area you're in and the age of the house/mechanicals/roof, your maintenance/capex might be higher.