Areas where people want to go have pretty high pricing and there are a number of STRs there.

I don’t want hard money lending since cost is too high and I have the cash to pay it if I want to. 

The teacher did try and have us study balancing a check book and calculate interest rates but the class was meant for kids who couldn't pass normal high school math.

We give them the option to move out for several reasons: - if it is truly an issue and they stay the burden of liability shifts to them, you still have to fix it.- if they stay and it is not an issue then they will still think that it is.

If location isn't a big factor (does not seem to be based on original post) I would highly recommend looking into building a barndonium or shouse in an an area where you can get a tract of land fairly inexpensive and has little zoning regs and requirements.

Where they were all looking at it as “$250,000 to fix it up”, I was looking at “how much to tear it down and subdivide”.

BiggerPockets also has a calculator to analyze deals, and I highly recommend you start this as soon as possible, even if you are not ready to buy.

The math looks like this:$150,000 (ARV) x .70 (ARV percentage) = $105,000$105,000 – $20,000 (ERC) = $85,000 (buying price)This formula is commonly used by house-flipping investors to decide how much to pay on a fix and flip.70% Rule: Formula and ExampleThe formula itself is rather simple: Once the ARV and ERC are calculated, you then plug in the numbers.Take a house that has an ARV of $100,000 and needs $20,000 in rehab.

Also in many instances that I have seen the fees are very high for managing the investor pool and the property management and the returns may be comparable to a CD with the risk.

So, it's a constant challenge to understand what the maintenance issue is, so you understand what's really needed to properly fix it.