It is getting increasingly competitive as more investors come in from NYC and overseas, but there are still great deals to be found. 

Landlords are increasingly doing this though I don't do it as in not a common practice for the rentals I own.First the legality and the process.

We haven't even done our first deal yet (unless you count our primary residence which we're also thinking differently about at this point, thinking about potential value add's and potentially renting it out if we could find something else where the numbers make sense) but we're already hooked.I am a professional delivery driver for a fairly large company and for the last month during work I've been burning through the BP podcasts at a very rapid rate. 

Properties close to Lidl, Aldi, Morrisons and Asda have typically increased by 15% in value over the past four years, Lloyds Bank said.Sure this is in the UK, but it should have the same affects here. 

Here are things I also consider in my model (but I'm also an excel guru and work in investment management firm so i'm good with number crunching):estimated annual appreciation of (but you can bypass this if you assume that increase in your rent offsets all the expense increases):1. assets2. rents3.

I intend to bill water back to tenants later on to increase revenue for about $600/mo.

What % do you increase the rent every year

Wouldn't your credit score deteriorate a lot from getting lots of hard inquiries on your credit, which then will increase your interest rates?

The STR has higher expenses than LTR, so this is no where near as much cash flow as getting $15K/month for an LTR but it is significant positive cash flow.I suspect the rent as a LTR will be between $5.5K and $6K per month but we have done a rent survey yet in part because I am anticipating the LTR rent may fall due to the increased supply of LTR units. 

Increase income and cut expenses?