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?!?

Anyway, ideally you can use a lower cost strategy like a line of credit, or in some cases if the property is reasonably intact it is possible to get a conventional loan on it with @ 25% down (which may eat up the cash and limit flexibility). 

If your numbers don't work you might just need to eat in instead of wasting the time and money just to lose money every month if the numbers for rent don't work or if the market is unsellable on a block that a house just sold, to you, for 10k.

Your individual spend may be (hopefully) less if you have roommates who share expenses and utilities, if you never 'go out', eat very little, etc. 

You may want to review labor costs, since those can eat up the budget quickly.

You travel a ton for more investment (real estate) opportunities, looking for homes, Airbnbs, mobile park deals, and you spend good money on the road meeting with investors and eating out trying to drive business.

While real estate is a dog eat dog industry at times there are times to be the good guy.

Also paying back that money is really eating up my cash flow.