Am I too or not conservative enough for buy and hold estimates?

[Alberto De jesus]

Hello,

I'm attempting to calculate monthly cash flow on properties in low income areas in Massachusetts. I am struggling if I am putting the correct amount of money aside for monthly maintenance and big ticket repairs. Must houses I will buy are early 1900s. 

I am putting aside 10% of rent for monthly repairs. I also am putting 10% for future big ticket repairs, like a new roof.

Do those numbers seem right?

[Kevin Siedlecki]

The bigger ticket items like roofs, furnaces, and driveways are hard to estimate based on gross rent, since there can often be no or very little difference in the cost of a roof on a house that rents for $1000-1500 and a multi that totals $3000-4000.  

I wrote a post about understanding the numbers of multi-family investments last week that might be helpful.  Here is the link if you are interested: http://www.biggerpockets.com/blogs/6815/blog_posts...