Is that the real estate downturn, or the oil downturn, gold downturn, silver, hog bellies or whatever they're trading an hour or so south of me in Chicago  . . . and of course for all of those downturns, you can find the exact opposite predictions from SOMEONE for anything and literally you could spend all of 2017 watching non stop youtube videos, listening to "financial whiz" podcasts and interviews, there's the screaming "I'm bald but refuse to do the shave your whole head trend since I'm too busy screaming about stocks all of the time" stock dork on CNBC or wherever he is (maybe MSNBC-oh wait, they've got the entire on air staff on 24/7 suicide watch since the election results came in at MSNBC) Anyway, point is that you can literally find someone pushing ANY prediction and what is also very troubling is that MANY who push the "downturn" scenarios and ESPECIALLY the "major downturn" or even the incredible # of "global economic collapse is any day now, might even be tomorrow!!"

This shaves off $400 and puts you at only 200/month cashflow based on your math (without considering the vacancy and property management).A couple other thoughts.. 

I'm currently working as a builder for 7 new builds in Austin and it seems no matter what we do we just cannot shave the numbers any where near $100 / ft.  

Just a little background: No debt, I get paid to go to college (scholarships)Good Credit (high 700's)Have begun reading books and listening to multiple BP Podcasts daily.Interested in flips, and multifamily properties (especially a duplex to start out)

Everyone wants a deal and if you self manage you are passing that savings on to your cream of the crop clients. win-win

I love an Americano with room for full fat cream!

@Rommel PascualIf you act as your own General Contractor you can probably get that down around the $115-$130 a sq ft range using a lot of subs, you can shave another $10 to $20 a sq ft  off of that by hiring hourly workers.

My favorite list is people that own the house, live in the house, have owned it for 20 years or more and own it free and clear - that is the house you will make the most money on when grandma or grandpa are now all alone in the house and are moving in with the kids, to the nursing home, or passes away - someone finds your postcards in 6 months or 6 years from now and give you a call to see if you still buy houses - these are the cream of the crop.With Realeflow leads you can do a lot of the above sorting and with the $7 a month version you can get 100 leads from their system - narrow those leads as much as possible before you export them to get the best leads for your money.Then, the next thing to do is to watch the list for returned letters.  

My research and gut feeling are telling me not to get those(not really owning the unit/s, having to ask permission from the co-op board for virtually everything Id like to do to to the unit, not being able to rent the space during the first 2years, and having potential neighbors perform open surgery on my financials doesnt sound fun to me.)

It's not always peaches and cream in this business.