You can also take advantage of lower down payment loan products rather than going 20-25% down on a conventional investment loan. 

My local Airbnb rep said the algo does consider cleaning fee too so try to be lower or even with your competition. 

Anecdotally, I noticed many repair men seem to do a worse job overall (slower, lower quality work, coming late or even cancelling on days) when paid up front. 

Of course, your specific block may be higher or lower.

We are looking into houses on the lower end of the scale at first to get started for a "low risk" (we could pay mortgage out of pocket no problem even if property is vacant for 30 years) house that will give us the experience we need as rental home landlords - and I am looking down the road at potential investment ideas to keep this thing rolling.

I think the ability for the lower cost places in the midwest to 'cash flow' has been way, way overstated.If you know a market well though, that's definitely an advantage.

I'd much prefer to put $60K on a down payment and closing costs so I have $50K to fix it up.So a couple of questions: 1) Am I mistaken in thinking those kind of lower down payment products are out there for regular folks like us? 

Buildium is also one you could use and I think they have a lower minimum door count. 

Expect, to only get about 8% (or lower) of the properties you buy redeemed.If you pay close attention to the type of property, and do research to protect your interests, the percentage does jump up to about 30%-50% on the properties eligible for two year redemption.

Value add ( do you want to do reno/raise rents), or stabilized (income producing, lower maintenance).