Each line-item on your SOW will consist of some material cost and some labor cost. 

That means a $70k house should never have maple cabinets and granite countertops, while a $500k house would definitely want those items.

At the very least this will allow you to spend your time fine-tuning the numbers more on the investments that pass this test first instead of wasting time looking at small movements in cash flows on items that clearly don't work.Best of luck to you!

We've found that if we schedule a weekend and go inspect the properties ourselves (with at least a week notice to the tenants as we have to schedule the trip that far out, anyway) once a year or so, a lot of the little stupid items that used to drive us nuts just go away.

The hold back shows up as a line item on the closing statement, with escrow releasing the funds when I send an authorization letter to escrow.

People that are poor from my experience have less quality items and a ton of hand me downs.

Thanks for the response Ryan.These numbers are coming directly from the mortgage consultants Good Faith Estimate Worksheet (in PDF form).I thought that line item was high as well.

It's the large items which I have no experience with that worry me.

Do you have information on the normal big ticket items such as roof, HVAC, electric and plumbing?

Maybe I should restructure my goals around actionable items that I can control.