Analyzing Local Deals

[Jacob Phillips]

Hello BP! This is kind of a loaded post so please bear with me:

So I'm starting to really look into deals in my town.  My goal is to invest locally and mostly self manage so I can gain experience.  Eventually, I'll move into better markets farther away.  At this time, I live in a small mid-Missouri town of about 13,500.  We have a local college that enrolls about 1500 students.

I am still learning how to analyze deals, of course, and still don't know all of what I don't know, but, from what I can see, every deal I've looked at, including a few SFRs and a couple duplexes, has barely met the 1% rule.  Average rents in the area seem to hang out in the $700-800 range for 3+ beds.  

I've found an old 4-plex (1910) a few blocks from the college that rent rolls $1540/mo.  So, you can assume it caters primarily to the college crowd (concern?) and isn't in the best condition.  Another bonus (I think) from what info I gather off realtor.com, is that the owner currently pays all utilities, so I think there's a chance to add value that way. From everything I can tell, granting some probable newbie errors, the place should easily cashflow $300, maybe even close to $500.  Everything else I've looked at seems to be lucky to  touch $100 in cashflow.  This place has been listed 436 days.  So, I think I'm keying in on the right stuff, but I'm concerned about the age of the building.  Does this throw any red flags? Anything I should definitely look for?  Does the cashflow negate my concerns to a degree?

How do I continue to look for deals knowing that 1% is about all I can get? I'd really, really like for my first couple of deals to be closer than a half hour to me (rural), so how much should I be willing to sacrifice to make that happen?