I'm planning on saving for 3-6 month of vacancy, however, I see repairs, maintenance and CapEx being a little more volatile. 

However, lenders must exercise caution when considering retirement accounts as effective reserves because these accounts often•are in the form of stocks, bonds, or mutual funds;•feature significant penalties for early withdrawals;•allow limited access; or•have vesting requirements.If the retirement assets are in the form of stocks, bonds, or mutual funds, in order to be considered for reserves, the account must be discounted by 30% to account for market volatility.

I know that most people on here would strongly disagree with me on that but with my personal situation - I'm a self-employed entrepreneur with very uncertain and volatile income from year to year - I really don't like the idea of having a bunch of mortgage payments.Hey @Ali Boone  , thanks for chiming in :) I've been looking at turn-keys in Memphis, Houston, Dallas, Toledo, Dayton, and Birmingham.

If I were a buyer, I wouldn't pay a 9-10% cap rate for that kind of volatile cash flow.

I just figured I didn't want a lot of cash sitting around and I am comfortable (at least I think I am) with market volatility.

People with jobs are volatile. 

Low volatility has a prized place in most people's investment portfolios.

I want to point out on thing about the volatility. 

Hi Alexis,IMO If you look at the volatility in median sales price between the two cities you will see Austin is a much safer bet. 

In terms of volatility, if you look at historical charts of both the Prime rate and 1-year treasury rates, they look almost identical with the Prime rate consistently higher than the 1-year treasury rate.