The first 5 years were negative cash flow, but the appreciation was always decent so us to justify holding. 

But they're UGLY and many of them were installed through a cutout in the wall instead of a window :( I'm wondering if spending the $$$ to install the central heat/air is worth the expense: will it result in increased property value and justify rent increases?

I've heard of people charging anywhere between 8% to 15%, but those have been rare, especially for the higher rates -- they'll have to justify that extra 5%.

@Benjamin SulkaAn investor friendly agent should be able to pull closed comps from their MLS to help justify prices for you.

It is hard to justify google reviews for PM in my opinion.

I spoke with Anderson as well, but couldn't justify the cost (especially since I just started investing last year).  

Easy to find better tenant and easier to re rent shall they decide to leave Some may start looking and realize it’s justified and may just decide to stay .

Sometimes we have opportunities to sell a house and make multiple years worth of profit in one day.How much profit is enough to justify selling now so we can reinvest as Joe described and how much is too little that we should just rent the house for 5 years on a portfolio loan?

Most at least claim to be justified by safety concerns, although (at least in California) there are a significant number of other interests at play in most of the building mandates. 

What I am a little concerned about is an agent utilizing the safe harbor mechanical rules as some kind of psuedo baseline in a case law analyisis.There is more than enough tax cases to stand on to justify rentals for section 162.