In most situations you can't have your cake and eat it too.   

The property taxes alone were eating apart so much of the monthly payment (North Jersey has highest in nation) that I moved my down payment money into a rental property in west Jersey near PA.

Then there are ones with tons of junk fees to try and eat up every cent of your deposit even if reports do not make up the whole amount.

That's why many business have non-refundable deposit and cancellation fees.....hotels, airlines, doctors offices etc...... if you bail on me and I could have had another paying customer using my services at that time, then I'm not eating that lost revenue.... that's on you.If I got lucky enough to rent it out real quick I may refund the $$ just to avoid the hassle of dealing with them if they put up a fight.... otherwise they are on the hook for the booked time

At that rate property taxes eat up a whopping 33% of your total income. 

Not trying to go low budget, as want things to last through multiple tenant turns...but also don't want to spend a fortune if avoidable (have cake and eat it too, I guess?)

It's only a stepping stone to break free.While you are slaving, eat ramen, roommate up or live in trailer, avoid Starbucks and tuck every dollar you can squeeze out into a bank account. need 20% down and money for materials. so for 80K home (trashed), you will want 35K banked to get started, just a rough idea.Then, get pre-approved.

It seems in the States you have to maintain appliances, the a/c system etc which would probably eat your profit?

I believe I am in a pretty good position to hold this against them on my closing and if not I will just not close the deal and eat the money vs getting into something too nasty with them.

Are you getting to have your cake... and eat it too?!?