Christopher,The answer to this question is pretty much universal.

My plan to getting started is to buying a single family house 4-6 bedrooms for around 200-300k  and renting out each bedroom for around 600 a month the area I'm looking to invest in has 2 major university's and 1 major collage so id be looking to rent to students , I do not have enough money to put down a conventional 20% down payment for an investment property so id have to put down 5-10 percent down with Mortgage insurance and put it as my primary residence but realistically I wouldn't be living there. 

Here I went to school, found my first job at 14, and went to college at Stony Brook University.

I first had the itch for real estate when I was 19 in my second year of university.

Home to the University of Kentucky and lots of growth in the past five years.

Further east Sacramento, Reno is not cheap either.Searching for options outside CA (via roofstock) Atlanta - Up & coming, tech presence & University Jacksonville/Orlando - good inflow of millennials, vacation crowd Dallas/San Antonio/Houston - up & coming, tech presence, but high property rates.I need inputs on few points.1.

Single dwelling with smaller floor plans are 650-700K in 2016Property under contract 620KCity of OrangeDirectly across local university Zoned: R16000 sq ft3bd/1ba - 1500 sq ft main dwelling$2700 rent for main dwellingmain dwelling needs 50k of rehab on its ownallowed up to a 640 sqft accessory unit with an attached garage that does not count against 640 sq ft.public access way available to accessory unit garage$1800 potential rent for accessory unitHave at it BP. 

@Daniel Mills My area is not as rural as you may think. there are two large universities nearby.

Is there a universal/rule of thumb to help estimate this?

Stockton University will be opening it's Atlantic City campus this year which consists of a Residence building on the beach block, Academic building across the street and a shared garage with South Jersey Gas.