50% rule: a little insight, please

[Andrew Martin]

Hi everyone. First off I feel blessed to be a part of this community and am very grateful to Brandon, Josh and whoever else had their hands in making this possible for us all. Okay, so I am a new investor and I'm currently analyzing multiple deals a day to get my head in the game and be able to grow sharper day in and day out. I have been running the numbers taking a percentage out for each individual expense and ran across the article Brandon wrote about the 50% rule. I sat down and added the usual expense percentages I use and decided that the 50-60% rule is very good conservatively just a few percent higher than I come up with individually. Conservative is a great thing; my question is this: when I do this and then factor in the mortgage it almost seems every deal is negative. I mean unless I look at one for 40-50k (which from my understanding is near impossible to get a mortgage on?) Then the mortgage usually kills the cash flow. I'm also basing this on 4-5% 30 year amortization- is this a common and practical approach? 

Example:
Purchase price: 60k

Mortgage: 4.5% 30yr
304/month
3648/annual

Rent: 800/month
9600/annual

50% rule expenses: 400/month
4800/annual

Total expenses:704/month
8448/annual

Total cash flow: 96/month
1152/annual

Any feedback is greatly appreciated. Is this $96/month sought after? What do you guys generally like to expect in cash flow? Thanks again for letting me be a part of this community!

[John Hickey]

Andrew Martin I think your right on the 50% rule. When the rent is around 800 it works great. Def would pencil the real expenses but it's a good as meant- a rule of thumb.

As far as the deal you have, Depends on what the neighborhood and possibility of appreciation and rent growth.

So I would be asking what's the rent growth like in that area historically...and will it continue as is.

Same question for appreciation.