cash flow when starting out

[Santana Campbell]

I'm mostly in research mode for the time being but even just playing with numbers makes it seem like what I had planned isn't going to cut it. 

I had origionally planned on $60000 down payment. Which is reasonably repeatable every 2-3 years. 

I wanted to use that to buy a property that may need $10,000-15,000, or less, worth of work to make it ready to rent. In all of the areas I'm looking, the types of properties I would want to invest in are going for 220k (and can rent for $1200-1400 per month).

I would like to be in Utah at least to start with. Long distance feels like more of a high wire act than I wanted just for starting out, even though I have read plenty of arguments for why it isn't. 

The real problem seems to be that in order to make a 220k property cash flow positively and within the $100-300 per month return range I would have to pay off more than half of the property value and then have a lot of cash stuck within that one property.That doesn't sound like the greatest way to get started. 

I'd rather leave the properties that need a lot of work to the house flippers (and even those seem to be selling at 177k), I'd prefer to not start out with a huge monthly expense while coaxing a house into positive cash flow with supplemental money, and putting half or more down will make getting started like trying to drive with the breaks on. 

How on earth do you do this while limiting the money you have to put on downpayment? It can't all be miracle properties. Can it?

[Joe Villeneuve]

You're just in the wrong market.  Look for the micro-markets within the larger market areas.  You are approaching this correctly though.  You dictate what the property must conform to (cost, rehab cost, etc...), and if the property won't "play nice", you don't buy it.

If you can't find any properties that will "play nice", then you're in the wrong micro-market.  Find the right one.

If you can't find one, based on your requirements, then you should start out doing sandwich lease options.