(Many years ago I had some experience with Great Plains accounting software.)I suppose I might do some things with Excel too.  

You could drop this into Excel and easily get some averages from a few properties.

The holding company can be any entity you choose (c-corp, s-corp, LLC) and should be selected after a discussion with your CPA.There is no 'one size fits all entity or structure', however the above structure is an excellent asset protection method for real estate investors. 

If the case was that they are truly market experts and they knew that raising the rent would cause a vacancy and therefore they have protected you from taking on that expense (which really is a strong possibility imo), then thats excellent, however it goes back to communication and lack there of.  

Please don't do that on a $25k rehab.You make an excellent point!

Hey everyone I am Ryan from Tyler, Tx I am a real Estate Photographer as-well as a freelance photographer in the custom automotive world, but being around real estate and listening to BP podcast has really lite a fire for me and my wife to want to invest in the Short Term rentals. our plan is to use our equity from our home now to pick up a Vacation rental in the smokies, we are in Texas so I really looked at Broken Bow, Ok originally but that market has sky rocketed in price way out of our budget. once we get the vacation home producing a income, we plan to do some fixing up to our townhome to turn it into a medium term rental for nurse and collage students since we are a 10/15 min drive from both here locally. for some of you veteran investors does this sound like a proper way of going about getting our foot in the door of our investing? 

Per our conversation, Corby did mention that Boise is not the best cash flow market, but an excellent appreciation market.

@Bo Bond - excellent write up and 100% correct!

If you are building your rental empire than using the excess cash flow to build up an additional down payment fund is also an excellent use of your cash flow.Robert Kiyosaki preaches that you should  reinvest the excess cash flow into your real estate business and not use it to increase your lifestyle.

If you find a market with reliable and aggressive appreciation and no rent controls, rents will rise aggressively too- so excellent cash flow will follow and you'll be able to scale and ride the appreciation up as well.