I’m starting to bang my head against the wall trying to make anything pencil not knowing exactly what the property taxes will be but figuring it is the combined rate on the tax assessor’s site multiplied by the acquisition price.

Also, the fact that I'm obtaining their property but will just go find another person to lease option. i.e. some sort of sandwich.I can't figure out why any seller would want to do this??

There's a cool meetup the 2nd Saturday of every month that might be perfect....no sales, just a bunch of people in similar positions as you trying to figure it all out and sharing resources.Have you started looking for properties to house-hack yet?

When selling, I usually figure about 10% of the selling price. 6% for realtor, 1% for title policy, about 2% to help the seller close and about 1% for misc fees (doc prep, escrow fees, recording fees, etc).Things will vary by company, but 10% is a pretty safe amount to budget for.

I’m trying to figure out the best strategy to go with?

I don’t know what that figure includes.Taxes = $1,743/yrInsurance = $1,817/yrUtilities = $1,459/yr (water, sewer, trash)I put all this info in my cost model.

Seems obvious, but figured I’d ask.

You are making some money, but if you figured in CAPEX and vacancy, that number would get closer to break even.

@Caleb Heimsoth  as Bob noted, there are people who will paint for $175/day but availability might be a big issue and it also depends on what quality you're looking for (e g does it matter to you that the old paint bleeds thru in a couple of spots)if you figure around $1.05-$1.10/sq ft (of wall space, not just floor space) that will put you on the low end of retail, will give you a decent quality job but won't include wall repair or baseboards/trimdry locking the basement should be around the same price but that stuff has a pretty overwhelming odor so you might get contractors saying they either don't do it or want a premium....get yourself a quart and open it up if you don't know what I mean....I've got a painter and other contractor referrals.....most will work anywhere on the west side. 

Hi all, one thing I've always been confused about is how people figure out vacancy rates.