Best ideas on Capex ratio

[Michael V Akbar]

I know that there may not be a science for this but I thought wouldn't hurt to ask the question: 

Just for initial planning purposes is there a way to come up with a swag at annual capex number for a class B apartment as a ratio related to its NOI, price, on-going maintenance costs, or some other parameter, way before you go on with a full due diligence?

[Michael Le]

For replacement reserves (at least in Texas) the lender will generally want $250-300 per unit each year. So a 100 unit apartment will be $25-30k to ensure you have money to fix big ticket items such as roof, HVAC, etc.

And I'm not talking about the capex to fix deferred maintenance or to upgrade your property to match the surrounding comps. This is only ongoing capex that will occur as your property ages.