Get a few of those and read them - that way you can start to get familiar with what kinds of things can happen in a house, and how big of a deal it is to fix each one of them.If there are any new houses being built in your area (like, within bike or bus/train range), and the neighborhood is relatively OK, go over to that neighborhood, after the workers have left for the day, and see what building a house looks like. 

There, you can typically expect cash flow ranging from 10-18%. 

The issues we ran into were being pre-approved for a mortgage much lower than what most houses in our area are selling for, and finding houses that were in our price range did not qualify for conventional mortgages.

For my houses, I run about $75/month for capex in my model, which is usually around 6 to 7% of gross rent (usually in the $1200-1300 range in my area).

A misdemeanor may be sufficient to deny application if the conviction was recent and didn't involve a more serious crime, such as battery or intentional property damage.

Prices so far this year range from $420k-$1.05M all with ocean views or ocean access.

In terms of your financing question, the majority of loans we do are in that $1m to $5m range, so that's not an issue at all (fake numbers wasting everyone's time would of course be an issue, but let's stipulate that it's solved).

I may switch to a 5% conventional loan to avoid the risk of failing the self-sufficiency test.

., sufficient insurance, application fees, certificate of occupancy, etc.).

What is your price range?