As a licensed contractor and real estate agent, I can review your estimates, ask the questions you might not know to ask, and help you make an informed decision that balances cost with quality.

However, I still struggle to understand the art of estimating rehab costs. 

So the question becomes based on their individual and personal tax situation what is the estimated tax burden they'd save? 

A smaller paid off portfolio seemed a lot easier to manage so that is the path I was on.. but I've come to the realization if I ever want to accumulate serious wealth I will have to use leverage and scale big. 

We got three estimates from masonry repair companies ranging from $7,500 (patch) to $35,000 ("do this repair now or you will need a major $80K repair").

I'm looking to make this part of the retirement stream of income rather than an effort to accumulate multiple properties.

Hi Eric,Great question—estimating operating expenses can definitely be tricky, especially for items like maintenance, CapEx, and make-ready costs that vary widely between properties.

I then created an excel sheet with those estimates to know (a) what to offer for land to make my numbers and (b) to hold the sub to what they estimated for me.  

After 45 + years as a real estate investor, broker, lender, fund manager and syndicator, I’ve become aware that the “dream” of many investors and investor “hopefuls” is to be able to generate enough cash flow to live off their real estate holdings and accumulate enough wealth to make “work” optional.

In one building the tenants accumulated so much junk over the course of their tenancy that I was forced to get a 40’ roll off dumpster to get it emptied for a sale.