This building was in a very nice area but just a so-so street.Called out national pest control company.

The total usually comes to around $8k cash to control a unit worth $25k to $30k.In this case though the estate wants to sell the property outright, and it will take ~$6k to update.  

About a year later we did the same thing with another property, and have now bought a few more.The city has definitely gotten significantly more expensive in the past ~12 months, maybe most notably in the past 6 months, particularly for properties in the 1-3 family range (inventory has also been super low compared to the summer). 4+ family properties are rent controlled, unless you owner occupy a unit (then they're not rent controlled up to 6 families).

I've read a bunch of your posts and listened to a lot of podcasts over the last week (listening to show 61 as I type this).To find the place where I saw three free uses, click on the link below, do a 'Control F' to search the page (or another search function if you are not on a PC), and type in "you can try" and it should take you right to the spot. 

I understand kids are kids and accidents occur but also want to make sure I set a standard with the tenant that she needs to control her children.

I'm not a lawyer and this isn't legal advice just brainstormingIf it is in San Francisco under rent control you would have to do a Tenancy in Common (TIC) but I'm assuming it is in Mountain View or similar which probably wouldn't have that issue.

Their false belief is that it controls when tenant will leave.

I want to safely control my financial future, and I feel real estate is a great way to achieve that goal.

"Close drains" when you can, but there will always be "drains".In short, focus on investing for income while controlling unnecessary expenses.

So I'm wondering what that result should be that I am optimizing for and I want it to be something that will be sure to result in some success for the client but also that I can have a high degree of control over (deals purchased would be hard because I'm greatly relying on the investors ability to close deals.)