For example, if the job takes 20 hours at $25/hour, you’re looking at around $800 total.Expect quotes to be significantly higher, but use your formula to negotiate.

Sure, I could look for a higher paying job, but I was wondering if anyone has any creative short-term methods to improve my ratio.

Yeah, no question, I'd be taking my $2.5m payout on my $2m property and going to Carolinas, they got dang nice beaches too. 

Treat this property as a business and factor in all the associated expenses, including mortgage payments (if you pull a loan), maintenance, and potential vacancy periods.To simplify management and make this less of a hands-on job, I’d strongly recommend working with a property management company.

@Andrey ShostakA tax calculator would be nice.

Your job is to make sure they are covering what they need to cover for the property. 

when you get to the rust belt and mid west no real need for it in a big way when you can still buy nice SFRs for 150 to 300k all day long.

Also, focus on 2 years of job/income stability.Class D Properties:Cashflow vs Appreciation: Typically, all cashflow with little, maybe even negative, relative rent & value appreciationVacancy Est: 20%+ should be used to cover nonpayment, evictions & damages.Tenant Pool: majority will have FICO scores under 560 (almost 30% probability of default), little to no good tradelines, lots of collections & chargeoffs, recent evictions.

Without population growth, your rental income will lag behind inflation, requiring you to find additional sources of income.How long your rental income lasts depends on the job growth in the investment city.Non-government jobs are inherently temporary.

 - flipping is a job, stop flipping and stop making money.