I make a decent living working at a busy restaurant here in town, but I am very interested in using real estate investing to provide me with some financial freedom.

But the neighborhood lacked a certain je ne sais quoi - oh wait, I know what it lacked- services and restaurants. 

Let's do a BP get together at a restaurant nearby and head to the conference after.

I live in Franklin and it is 10 minutes to Cool Springs (mall and commercial area with every store imaginable) and you are just 30 minutes from Downtown which is not so much shopping, but great restaurants and a lot of events.

I have a full time job as a Restaurant General Manager.

Let's rounded to $400/mo/unit to simplify the numbers.That is an income of $1600*12/yr from rent ~= $19,200Now, expenses:Maintenance: $9,600/yr (50% rule)Taxes: Around 1% ( lucky New Mexicans): $1,700/yrMortgage Payment ([email protected]%): $763/mo ~= $9,150/yrInsurance: Around $1,000/yrPossible Cashflow per Year: 19200 - 9600 - 1700 - 9150 - 1000 = (-$2,250)A negative cashflow does not look so good, but here are 2 opportunities to increment it:1) Increase rents.

My best suggestion go walk the area, see what new restaurants are coming into the neighborhood.

I was subbed by a GC to do the work at a chain restaurant.  

At the time I was still working at a 5 star restaurant for 70 hours a week, I was saving every penny I had and investing a lot into the stock market and trading.

The location (schools, restaurants, crime, etc) is decent but nothing too promising in terms of appreciation (3% annual average) Here are the details: Purchase price: $170,000Rental Estimate per month: $1500HOA: $1000/yrInsurance: $1100/yrTax rate: ~3.4%I assumed the following:I use a 20% downpayment on a 30 year fixed conventional loan w/ 4% APRNew build so warranty is covering most things so minor, if any, maintenance will be neededTake into account 1 month of vacancy per yearTake into account annual broker fee to list of one months rent~5K closing costs~2k in appliance purchasesResult: Assuming rent range of $1500-$1550/month and assuming 1 year I wont have to pay the broker fee to list:From my cash flow analysis I am projecting to have positive cash flow of around .02%-2.1% per year.