military - buying in the hopes of renting later

[Tim Ward]

hello all, and let me start by saying i know i am probably beating a dead horse here. i've read similar topics but would like a little more specific advice to help with that warm and fuzzy so thank you in advance for sticking with me.

back to the question at hand... i am into my tenth year of service in the military and have always been a renter. i kick myself for not taking the plunge into buying my own home before now but the thought of being a home owner / landlord is very intimidating. but regardless my wife and i have made up our minds its time to invest some of our income and get a return on my BAH.

we are currently in fayetteville nc and have settled on the idea of buying a house around $115,000 putting our mortgage with tax and insurance around $700 a month in an area that rents in the $900-$1000 range.

our plan is to put as much into the mortgage as we are willing to spend on rent ($1200) to help pay it down before we PCS again. when we do then rent it out and use it as an investment property. cash flow would be nice here, but since we want to move into a livable home and i dont have the resources / time to rehab a fixer upper breaking even is okay with us. long term goal here is to sell when i retire to effectively collect on what our renters have put into the house for us.

are we off our rockers here? on a older home, newly refinished inside with a new roof / ac will 200 extra month be enough to reasonably assume it will cover maintenance and PM expenses (i think they run 10% here) or are we buying into a money pit?

thanks in advance here, Tim