Hello,I have been looking for almost 3 months (in Cincinnati) and having a hard time finding a good enough deal that's in a good, desirable location and rents easily.  

If you do not do this you are placing zero value on cash which to a seasoned investor is a primary sin.Personally 5% is not enough to suite my investment goals and can easily be surpassed but each to their own.  

@Kathryn Bowden If the windows are still in good condition (it opens/closes easily, locks, and non-foggy), I wouldn't spend the money to replace them.

Way better than getting a door with a veneer over engineered wood - pretty much non repairable if a dog scratches the daylights out of it, someone bangs their dresser into it when moving and dings the heck out of it etc -- solid jams can be repaired easily and the hardness of oak will take WAY more abuse.   

You typically cannot strip the equity out of an investment property as easily as you can your own home unless you travel back to 2003.  

Each of the below list is actual dollars spent by area, my contractor broke down his bill/quote so that I could more easily allocate costs for depreciation purposes (among other benefits of knowing what I am sending by room).I would like to be able to depreciate each of these expenditures of 7 years but I am not sure if I am allowed to (with the consequential answer placing these depreciation dollars into a 27.5 year bucket):Screened in Patio: $4,798 - we are destroying a room and turning into a nice screened in patio.Bedroom renovations: $7,888 - updating bedrooms with new drywall, removing and replacing ceilings, light fixtures, building additional closet space, paint, trim, etc.Entry way: $4,308 - the shared entry way is a mess right now.

I know the site has a built in calculator but I felt it was limiting in comparing multiple properties easily. 

I want to reiterate that the tenant CAN pay the difference easily.

If it saves me even half the stress that my CPA did, it's easily worth it; even if just to get me up and started in a way that I know what I'm doing.Thanks for including your article, Account Closed.

If you expertly know the street or neighborhood and feel like you can get the rents up to market easily, then flex a little bit with your expectations.