As for the dual payments, our plan was to get the $1800.00 rent and cover the additional $1000 (HOA, Taxes, Insurance, etc.) + another $1800 (max.) for the house we are planning to buy.

Our market in CO still looks like it's dropping so I don't see any reason to jump in it.I'm sometimes a little impetuous, I often suffer from "gottadoadealitis" but as I've gotten older I've learned to slow down a bit and have not regretted it.

Finally, the tenant may do the maintenance wrong and cause a fire burning your house down (which may or may not be covered by the insurance).

However, you may have a large amount of personal assets and to add a layer of protection, your attorney may or may not reccommend an entity for liability purposes.If you are doing a lot of them, it certainly can not hurt, and the $ you would be making would more than cover the annual expenses of the entity.

I have been fortunate in that I have never been in any confrontation with squatters, drug-users or the like, but if I ever have to be, I want my faithful companion by my side.Remember - If you have a good shooting stance, you are neither running fast enough nor using cover effectively.

So, if you can get enough rent that after paying out the 40-50% for expenses there's enough left to cover the P&I payment, then you're at least break even.

Houston may require a permit for this, but AFAIK all repair guys are licensed by the state and have to pay into a "risk" pool to cover boo-boos if they go out of business.

Obviuosly the higher the better but I didn't know if a certain amount of positive cash flow should be met to cover repairs, etc.

I wish I had a cape covered goverment official [paste picture here] wearing their underwear on the outside of their pants (not too different from many in the house of representatives) coming out to announce the 300b dollar bailOUT.

That assumes that $48 will cover the utilities, which unless that's just water, I seriously doubt.