Capex seems like its calculated wrong

[Kris L.]

So I was reading the BP book on rental investments and it tells me to keep a % of rent aside for this, but that makes less sense to me than a $ amount.  For instance, if I have a 1200 sqft 3/2 in a class C and a similar size in class A that rent for 900 and 1800 respectively, actual capex $ isn’t going to be that different.  A roof would still be about 4-5k, a water heater will still be around 600 etc...  and lifetime shouldn’t vary much between them, so why keep half the $ for the class C?  I mean maybe the appliances would be a bit more in the class A, but Why not just find Replacement cost and lifetime for the water heater, roof, appliances, water softener, HVAC and figure monthly avg for those instead?

[Jay Hinrichs]

your correct the % is not exponential as you rise up in renter class..  A tenants Genreally speaking will be much kinder of on a house. the C class those homes are usually older and things just break on them more.. and of course the tenants tend to really live hard so you turnover costs are normally Very understated.