Don't spend a lot of money putting architectural and structural together until you DO speak with a contractor on the plan and get a rough estimate.

When analyzing a rental and trying to calculate cash flow, how do you estimate utilities and expenses?

The 1stcould have been a fair deal, but it required a significant amount of work and if I was off on the estimate by $10-$15k, I would have overpaid.

The property I’m looking at right now would be bought and rehabbed using HM and with current numbers I do not think the HML would be able to get paid out at the refinance.ARV: 390 rehab: estimated at 110-115k  The seller is asking for 289k but there is no way that would work using the 70% rule. market rents: 1500 each unit since we are looking to add a bedroom in each unit and there’s a bonus unit on the third floor (basically a three unit but wasn’t reported with the town) 

Get some estimates and have conversation with them to see what they recommend. 

A lot of these are ballpark, offhand estimates and I have yet to verify them.I also have an offer to buy the property as is for $170k.

You need this calculator on your phone or laptop so you can enter the estimated sales price, market rents, estimated expenses, and make a quick decision. 

A lot of these are ballpark, offhand estimates and I have yet to verify them.I also have an offer to buy the property as is for $170k.

Typically if I find a rental property, say a duplex worth 100k, I find a mortgage, at a rate at say 5-8%, with 20% down. estimating it to cost 1-3 points.

Actually, you were pretty close with your estimates :) We are looking to get ~$2 - $2.2m for our current house, and that would put us at ~800k - 1m in equity (after sales costs).