What number to look for in current times?

[John Maxx]

Hi all!

I'm a newbie investor trying to get my first property. I've been reading up on a variety of posts here on BP. I want to buy and hold (give for rent) for long term. 

I live in Charlotte, NC and I keep hearing the market here is hot and only growing larger. I'm trying to get my first property in and around driving distance (40 min to an hour) around here. I work 9 to 5 on weekdays...so, for me I don't think I have the time to go the fixer upper route. I'm hoping I can find something almost move in ready or something that requires minor updates. Here are the criteria I'm looking for

1. A 3 BD room Single Family Home with no to minimal HOA fees (For now, I'm kinda ruling our Townhouses/Condos because they always seems to have a high monthly HOA and there's no control over any special assessment fees they might throw at you).

2. Looking to get it in a good school district.

So far everything I'm looking at are in the 200k and up range. Does it make sense for me to go for something that's about 200K. I'll put down 20% as down payment. The expected rent from these properties are not more than $1500 a month (best case).

I have tried to look for SFH under 100K, but that all look to be in a very bad condition and will need significant amount of work to be put in before the house can be put up for rent...which as of now, I don't think I will be able do.

A) Here itself, I'm not even close to the 1% rule. Is this a deal breaker for most of you all investors?

B) For some of the best houses I've seen, all expenses are coming to about $1200 and the expected rent is about $1500. That's about $300 cash flow each month. The cash on cash value here is approximately between 7% and 8%.

Based on these above numbers, is this something you'd recommend I can go for? I'd start off with one property and yes, I'd obviously want to keep picking up more houses as time goes by.

What would you suggest/recommend?

Thanks!