SourceLandlords kept financial pressure on tenants last month, as annual rent growth far outpaced households’ other costs, according to data released Friday.The cost to rent a primary residence rose 3.5% over the year through April, while the overall consumer-price index dropped 0.2%, dragged down by plunging energy costs, the U.S.

I wrote about the various methods here: http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2015/04/19/calculate-improvement-ratio-increase-annual-depreciation/

Lenders love it and it's usually a requirement to submit annually on commercial loans.

. $26,000/$160,000=16% annual return on your money.

If you are going to use private money, get a business prospectus and presentation put together, write down names of people you know that may have money to invest and sell the benefits that investing with you offer such as aggressive earnings, secure collateral, potential annual earnings, they become the bank etc, attend any real estate meet-ups in your area, and sell yourself.

Annual increase is 1.5% and you do not get it until 5 years at a time.

The property wouldn't be an JUST an investment property, but somewhere where I would want to live for the short term at least.With an 80k annual income (38k in student loans), 720+ credit score, 10k down payment, first house.is the place/situation I'm wanting a pipe dream?

The big difference is that you can contribute something like $18k annually into a 401k plan, while with an IRA (both Traditional and Roth) you're currently limited to $5500 a year. 

If the additional rent were $25 / month, or $300 / year, the resulting $300 / $5000 = 6% / year would be much less tempting.With respect to valuation (most relevant for refinancing): Assume properties in your area are valued at 11x annual rent.

FYI - You say all your info in annualized, but you have expenses at $2,400 and rent at $669, $660 which should be just under $15,948 rent.