There are some sticky posts in the Rental property forum that will give you a real life view of the "50% rule" (expenses are 50% of the gross rent), and buy you need to do much better than the 1% rule to have a deal.Frankly, I can't think of a worse place to invest than Detroit.

It is also evident that you left out many of the operating expenses, such as management (even if you do it yourself), utilities (even if only during vacancies), office supplies, legal fees, evictions, damage done by tenants in excess of the security deposit, entity maintenance, lawsuits, capital expenses (not technically an operating expense), etc, etc, etc.You might want to read one of the 50% Rule sticky threads in the General and Landlording topic areas.Good Luck,Mike

Even for a web programmer like me, I prefer something that I can throw and is guaranteed to stick. I

This is where it can get sticky, let's say your in court to collect past rent, the tenant is going to tell the judge it was mailed.

You need to figure out what the local rents are, and see if they're well above your payment (read the sticky threads in the Rental Property forum about expenses).

There are many b areas in San Diego that you can still value add like national city, lemongrass rice etc. .

Feels like such a sticky situation to me, but maybe I'm overreacting. 

This "Face-To-Face" knowledge and interaction becomes important, if any "sticky" issues develop during the transaction. 

Read the ultimate guides to renting your house and screening stickied at the top of the forum. 

@Richard Rice they aren’t suppose to come unannounced.