That's a new furnace every 6 weeks.My point was your math (3% of purchase price every year) is offIt should be about 8-10% of yearly rent (In your case around $1400, for the year, not monthly)This expense column is for leaking sinks and such, 12k is far too conservative for a double.

I do plan to keep it as a long term rental (it's 4 blocks away from my house), I just don't like that almost all the applicants have pets (only 1 didn't have one) so that being said I would hate for a cat/dog to ruin my brand new hardwood floors with their pee but maybe I'm being to paranoid and maybe it's worth the risk and make it a high end rental and hopefully keep the high rent.I still haven't put in the granite, this was one of the conditions for me to charge $1,700/month, I haven't done a good job on doing my homework about the type of upgrades on the rentals in the area, I do remember seeing a couple that mentioned granite, I definitely need to be sharper and get to know my market real well, I was thinking the best way to do this is to become a "prospective" tenant and go check out all the inventory for rent in the area.

You follow that simple math, and you will do pretty well.

The math may be a little different if you are buying leads as an agent vs. as an investor.

I tried attaching the document I used to do the math, but can't seem to know how to do it correctly.

Nothing I have read yet have really gone into enough detail to help.Sounds like I can do the initial homework myself to weed out obvious issues, but should work with a title company for those that make it through that first pass to make sure I didn't miss anything -- that sounds correct?

I've been doing my homework and learning as I go along and trying to connect with people.Thanks for your good wishes,Phyllis

First position notes to experienced rehabbers are generally safe, so long as you do your homework.

I just find it easier to do my homework up-front as soon as possible and then make an offer in which I am not just plain guessing at repairs and with as few contingencies as possible if I feel pretty good about the deal.

As Bill Gulley has mentioned, HUD uses 30% of income for the contribution from their Section 8 tenants; that is pretty close to 3x so we use 3x to keep the math simpler.