Finding properties

[Ronald Stark]

Hi All,

I live in Austin Texas. I am a first time buyer for buy and hold strategy. Currently I am pre-approved for my loan but I am having difficulty finding a property that meets the 1% rule or will even give a positive cash flow. My calculations factoring in taxes, mortgage, insurance, cap ex, maintenance and vacancy indicate the house cannot cost more than 130K assuming a rent of around $1200-$1300. I am willing to go for single family or even a multifamily but even the multi's are 200K plus. I am checking MLS on all the regular sites like Zillow, Redfin, realtor.com, realtoraustin even Craigslist but I am finding nothing.

Should I sign up with a realtor my guess is they will only find the same properties I find. Redfin even gives a 1% cash back to buyers but i don't want to be restricted to one realtor. I would prefer to be calling listing agents. I see lots of auction properties coming up but they all say 'as is', cannot view and cash only so I am ignoring those.

What am i doing wrong? Please advise.

Thanks,

Ron