I actually had a realtor reach out to me from this thread and offer to answer my questions as they come.

That leaves 60% to cover the actual costs of mortgage, taxes, insurance....oh, and you do want to make money on it right?

I was actually thinking about using a line of credit to finance any capex that needs to happen.

I was actually wondering who claims the mortgage interest for tax purposes. is it the seller i'm buying from since the loan is still in their name?

But how does this actually play out in practice?

@Sameer Jain Thanks for sharing your situation.I would say that the key challenge when investing in SFRs (especially in the Bay Area market) other than the valuations are the actual management of these properties.

@Kim Tucker Thanks Kim, I actually just told my wife 10 minutes ago that I'm going to attend the meeting on Tuesday night for the first time.

You've locked up the house and it's during the inspection period, it's much more likely you'll actually own the place as opposed to a house you're merely bidding on.

IF appreciation happened to be 3% instead of 2%, that would actually boost returns 2.5% at that leverage ratio. 

Thanks guys, this actually makes me feel better.