My initial question was mostly just to help me better understand how to properly evaluate my properties so that I can decide what to do next - based on what I'm seeing elsewhere in the market.Question: How and where would you factor in the appreciation of the property?  

Understanding labor availability and costs is a major challenge in such projects.Operating Cost AnalysisOperating cost analysis is used to measure the expenses associated with running a property, such as maintenance, utilities, and taxes, to evaluate the profitability of a potential investment.

I need to write up a cheat-sheet demonstrating why investors should evaluate their ROE every year.

.- Buyers: Pay close attention to wildly fluctuating mortgage rates, evaluate multiple financing options, and listen to your lender's advice on timing.

I used to have a clause that said very clearly that I was in complete charge of every aspect of the job and the customer was not allowed to bring in their own contractors - unless in a rare case I would allow one if I checked them out carefully and added on my mark-up of 25%.It's not just insurance issues as @Adrian Lemus said, but it just screws up the schedule and gets into 'I said/you said' episodes, plus code issues.I had a customer bring in an alarm company without even telling me once and I arrive one morning to find their employee drilling a hole in a huge beam that we had just installed.

Is there a requirement as far as how many employees you must have (i.e. cleaning employees-room ratio)?

We have a employee designated to the software, so I would not recommend it unless you plan to use it on a large (100+ units per location) scale.

Currently, I am trying to evaluate a strategy to build a portfolio of income properties in the Greater Atlanta Area.This thread is to pick your brains and to get ideas/ feedback for a "general strategy":So far, I have been reading about "buy and hold" and it seems like a pretty straight forward approach.

In our practice, any property 6-units or greater in size is evaluated (cost vs benefit) for fitness to be sub-metered.Once you sub-meter the water, you can hold tenants accountable for their consumption.  

I can guarantee a 900 sf 1940 frame in West Oak Cliff (Dallas County) should be evaluated completely differently than the same house in Iowa Park (Wichita County).There are a number of counties in the Panhandle area that have had auctions recently.