One of the big items is that you'll need to get a lead certificate but otherwise it's not too bad as long as you maintain your properties.Also as you noted, the tenant pool in most areas Woonsocket can be "challenging".

Mine just doubled from last year due to the disasters the nation has faced.Maintenance and repairs (these are not separate items) 5% of gross but it would be lower if you are buying a class A or B.CAPEX 2% of grossManagement fees on a SFH 10% of gross.  

I discuss all of these topics at application and interview for the apartment because if they have an issue with any of those items we never make it to lease signing anyway.

Sure, you're not going to jump in your car and drive all the way over there just to change a toilet flapper or electrical receptacle (2 repairs I recently had to do), so just call your handyman and have him knock out a bunch of "honey-do" items in one trip, including the furnace filter (as recently discussed on BP).

So, WHY would people tell me to get these items, let alone a gun, if I could not use them in self defense?

. $800 gross rent = 40K max priceReduce price by major expenses, and to correct items above.There's some variation depending on the submarket, but this list would get someone started right.

For instance, the IRS doesn't care if an expense was relating to a turnover repair or a standard maintenance item.

The roof is 3 years old.The operating costs are 30k/yr not including reserves for big ticket items and vacancy. 30k includes water sewer trash, taxes, insurance, and about 5,000 extra for misc.Obviously, calculating things using his numbers paints a very pretty picture.

If we're using that article for reference (the one that breaks down individual household items, their life expectancy, and their cost) then he does not set aside nearly enough in order to cover these items in the long term.As far as other investors in Springfield, no, I don't think that they're unwise because they have a different, less-passive business model than myself.

We're in a very very hot seller's market, and it seems our house was a bit of a hasty flip with some corners cut (we knew this going in from the inspection report, which the sellers refused to negotiate at all - again, big seller's market - and did expect other things to pop up).One item that we're dealing with is a backyard that has a lot of 'junk' hidden in it.