You'll find your own way to word the questions but taking a couple moments to evaluate the seller might open the door for a deal!

New investors sometimes come at this a bit naive, like imagining that there is need for student housing in a location that there is no need or thinking that they will make a nice place for some students and won't have to spend several thousands to fix it up again next year or just not knowing how to evaluate a property beyond the numbers on the paper. 

So definitely know that your experience, while sadly not all that unusual ... can be very easily remedied!

Now it's easily 20k+ in a competitive offer situation. 

Other people on these forums would slit their wrists if the unit failed to provide enough free cash flow and they could care less about principal reduction and appreciation.The 5%/45%/50% figures I heard from Matt Faircloth here:  And Brandon Turner described expenses being about 50% for a rental property in this video, though he included vacancy as part of the 50%:And I agree that you can't lean on these percentages in making your final purchase evaluation; you have to have the final numbers quantified.

Had we kept it, that same house is running about $500k now and would easily rent for $2,200 a month!  

Will you be able to come back easily or never/only after your tour is up? 

Your CPA can easily split it based on your 50/50 ownership and also apply the personal vs. business use %. 

Carpets get beat up too easily. 

What @Peter Vander Valk said is correct about the calculators in NJ, you can't use them to evaluate it against other states.