., 8% for vacancy, 3% for capex, etc.) that can be factored in as realistic or worst case scenarios when analyzing the deal?

This will give you a clear picture of your buying power and help you set realistic expectations.Your $50K is a great starting point, but you'll want to budget beyond just the purchase price.

With where prime is for HELOCs unless you had a deal you could get off that line quickly, it might make more sense to hold off realistically. 

Then the community can give you some more constructive comments you can take away and set some realistic goals for yourself. 

OR Talk with a property management team that specializes in Padsplit / Co-living and they can give you some more realistic numbers to go with when it comes to occurancy % and cost!

Better than each of those options is to be realistic, what most of us aim to do, but easier said than done. 

Setting that aside, I don't believe its realistic to buy a home and turn around and flip it without making any improvements.

Something almost always comes up and that helps you be realistic when evaluating deals, securing financing, etc. 

If a property is not in a realistic ballpark it is usually not worth analyzing.

This way you can calculate how much you can realistically invest and keep for reserves.