Capex reserve for cheaper props

[Edmund Li]

I am a newbie investor looking to get my hands dirty with my first purchase. I have been in search for my first rental property for a while, and I haven't pulled my trigger because I couldn't get the math right.

I've found some very cheap property with seemingly positive cash flow after P&I, insurance, management fee, property tax etc. However, the CapEx is the part I have been having trouble.

It seems that from various sources, the suggestion of capex reserve is about $180-$230 for a single family home. This makes sense since the prices for the large items don't seem to vary by a lot given the home price. So buying properties that are too cheap with lower rent seems always to be a bad deal. 

i.e. a $60k property with $800 gross rent, the $200 capex pretty much always put the cash flow to negative. While a $150k property with $1300 rent seems to be ok since the $200 capex would take up less portion from the gross rental income. Note: I am comparing properties about the same size.

So my question is, is the $200ish cap reserve pretty close to what I need even for cheaper properties? If so, does that mean cheap properties with lower rental income (even if it meets 1% rule) is pretty much always a bad deal?