I believe in putting in the work—1,000 hours of research, testing, and learning—before offering advice, and I’m excited to tap into the collective wisdom of this community to refine my approach.Here’s where my head is at: I’m considering strategies like short-term rentals (Airbnb) for higher cash flow, long-term rentals for steady income, or even creative options like house hacking or partnerships to stretch the funds further.

I will say that even though you get the boost from VRBO and AirBNB, the first year of operation is usually lean as you build up the rep.Offering a discount on the stay is a way to be more attractive but don't go crazy.

A local property manager will make this much easier and handle the visits for you.Single-family homes can still do well, even with more apartments popping up, as they cater to tenants who want privacy and space.

I'm not even sure how salary got introduced into this scenario but I'd prefer to discuss solutions and explore ways to get to the objective. 

It will be even harder as a young person with no life experience, and particularly no experience buying real estate. 

I made a great connection with that property owner and proved the concept since he was unfamiliar and hadn't even heard of rental arbitrage.

Expense ratio, as others have stated, often ends up evening out these fluctuations in each expense and can often times be a more accurate predictor over many data points.

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.

BiggerPockets also has a calculator to analyze deals, and I highly recommend you start this as soon as possible, even if you are not ready to buy.

You can still find single-family homes in the $80k–$100k range and duplexes in the $130k–$150k range, even in C and C+ neighborhoods that are seeing steady improvements.