Quote from @Shaun Ortiz: Hi Jason,Thanks for sharing your journey—it sounds like you’ve gained some invaluable insights from your experiences, even with the squirrel tenants (that’s definitely a story!).

Ask the people in Florida who now have sky high insurance and mandatory unplanned assessments, how much value having a paid off property is. 

Joe’s (19151), Powelton Village (19104), Squirrel Hill (19104)East Falls (19129)Francisville (19130)B+: Ton of flips, new construction SF being sold, still a couple teardowns on the block, trendy bars and coffee shops starting to open.

Need to be sure you include the "unknown budget" and never take the optimistic approach as it is better to have money left at the end than writing more and more checks that were unplanned for.Again, if you can walk through an actual property and compare notes with someone that does it in your area (key factor), you will be way ahead of what a generic book can give you.

OP your post has a lot of squirrel squirrel in it.  

I remember back when I first dipped my toes into real estate investing...around the time I’d hoarded my first serious nest egg like a squirrel stashing acorsn...I had something close to your $80K set aside.

Unless they are housing a squirrel, it will take you years to get someones attention and evict in the city.

Additionally, you may be asked to show some availability of liquid cash/assets to weather a storm in case something unplanned happens. 

@Brett BurkyThank you for noting I made a good point - see even a blind squirrel 🐿️ eventually finds a nut.To original poster - I tend to be brutally honest at times so happy to share my opinions on anything you are looking at

Call DEC and tell them they are harboring a pet squirrel - that should be enough to send out a crew of people to get rid of them.