Living In A Cheap Rent City

[James Ashley]

I live in an area where the average rent is $750. It's more of a rural area with a city center. Population is about 93k for the entire county. There are some homes that rent for $1200-1500 but the homes are valued around 200k+. Honestly there are several homes and duplexes in the $675-700 range. There's even some property in the $450 range. How would you tackle this kind of market if you were trying to get started? I've found a few deals in the 65k price range but they are few and far between. Even then the homes would require 10-15k of rehab to bring them up to date and then would only rent in the $675-700 range. If you go by the 50% rule that would only leave $350 for mortgage and cash flow. The mortgage on a 60k loan would be more than $350 even with 20% down. So essentially the one 1% rule and the 50% rule aren't working for me. I'm wanting to get started but everything I'm reading is saying the rent I would bring in wouldn't be enough to stay afloat. Can anybody help with this?