How about Maintenance, Vacancy, Cap-Ex, Lawyer, Accountant, Property Management, etc.?

The popular areas considered "great rental areas" now have properties approaching 5% cap rates because of speculation, but if you look in the suburbs you can find truly excellent deals.

For example,Agreed upon commission caps from realtors, Set title and doc fees from lawyers, Locked-in CPA fees, etc.

In order to hit these numbers, even in "cheap" markets like my own, Kansas City, it requires that you take C- grade properties.I mostly work with out of state investors, whom for the most part are willing to compromise for some appreciation in the long term with a smaller cap rate up front, typically a 1.5% rule.

AFAIK, I don't even have the right to hire someone to fix my own roof.HOA states my request to repair, by their very own roofers, with an identical replacement skylight cap must be authorized by the architectural review comittee which will take another 30 days plus.

If water is coming down the chimney you need to check the chimney cap!

I found what I think is a good app to calculate cap rates.

I've been trying to figure the same question for the past couple of months I live in Bergen county NJ and my mission statement when I've started looking was kind of yours, and I was looking for 8% cap rate as a target.Here's my 2 cents 1.

Mortgage Rate 5.00% Length of Mortgage in years 30 Monthly Mortgage payment $1,566.18 Taxes $553.75 Sewer and Water $- (assuming wells are billed to each house) Trash $158.00 Heat/Utilities $- HOA $- Cap Ex and Ops $600.00 (this is my minimum amount per building per month.

Also, the cap rate is under 10% on both of those proposed deals.