You will never regret being debt free.One more variable - what kind of vehicle do you need?

@ricketa Return is just the amount/percentage that came back to you after your investment.    

Go to some of your local REIAs/Meetups and meet some seasoned investors, maybe you can partner with someone, or even better, develop a mentoring relationship.As far as determining equity, you can get that info from a real estate agent, OR when you are pulling your list for marketing, you can filter by percentage of equity. 

Just don't test too many variables at once. 

What I mean is simply that there is fee based and percentage based and every single one of them is vague when trying to negotiate. 

Normally, the company negotiates for the tenant based on insurance information and variables submitted directly to them.  

Right now I pay for all the power and water and only collect a percentage of money from the machines (laundry contract). 

@Fred Heller is right in his explanation of the flood concerns and percentages.

I realize there are many variables such as region, weather, previous rehabs, and quality of construction methods originally used on any specific house, but I'm just looking for generalizations and things to watch out for.

Are there standard percentages that you guys use when estimating (e.g. 5% of gross rent allocated for repairs) or should I be more in depth.