Cash Flowing Property Question

[Nick Noon]

Although I am yet to make my first real estate deal, I have been reading a lot and learning the game and one of the major points of emphasis is a properties ability to cash-flow.  I may be mistaken, but I think you can pretty much get any property to cash-flow, correct? 

For example - round numbers: Let's say there is a duplex property for sale for $300,000. The rental income is $2,400/month and my expenses are $1,200/month (This includes CapEx, Vacancy, utilities, etc..)

Scenario #1: FHA loan, 3.5% down - Total note is $289,500 with a mortgage payment of $1,380. In this case I have a negative cash flow of ($180)/month. This is a bad deal.

Scenario #2:  Conventional Loan, 30% down - Total note is $210,000 with a mortgage payment of $1,000.  In this case I have a positive cash flow of $200.

So the same exact property can be made to cash flow just by putting more money down correct? So I think it's not really the ability for the property to cash flow, because you can get pretty much any property to cash flow, but rather a function of how much skin you're willing to have in the game, and more importantly...your cash-on-cash ROI. With a 30% down payment your cash-on-cash ROI is at 2.6% which is clearly less than ideal.

So shouldn't more people be talking about ROI than they should be about a cash-flowing property? Getting $200/unit is nice, but how much money have you had to sacrifice to get that I think is the bigger question.