I would recommend allocating a higher percentage to dry capital to be poised to take advantage of properties on sale.

Just make the correct allocation between the primary residence (§121) and the rental portion (§1031)."

I think what you do with this is situational so can't really answer.The guy in the stock market could have 5,000 in the stock market versus overall cash of 300,000 allocated in different areas.ORA guy could only have 5,000 period and wants to get into real estate investing full time. ( Do mailers for wholesaling, lease options, work for a investment company while learning and build cash, get your real estate license etc.)So depending on the situation you will get a ton of answers.

id=HUDContingencyPlan2013.pdf From a National Council of State Housing Agencies press release, During the briefing, HUD officials confirmed that Section 8 Housing Assistance Payments (HAP), contract renewals, and administrative fees for October 2013 will be paid on time, due to advanced appropriations allocated for this purpose.

This seems plausible, given commissions, seller-paid closing costs, your own closing costs, staging costs, insurance, utilities, taxes, and gulp... before even allocating overhead from your business operation?

. $1,700 for taxes and $500 was allocated for the insurance (used county data; and guested the insurance for the county).

Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of funds to allocate to my mailings just yet, so I can only do a small batch maybe 100 at a time.  

We also allocate a capital reserve out of Net Income (5 - 10% depending upon the age of the property and its systems) to address things like a new roof, new HVAC, etc.Capital improvements are a given in this business, so best to budget for them ...

Also, 5% is a low allocation for vacancy.

Given the uncertainty with building the dates are likely to move some.Another thing to consider is that the money has to be allocated to the project whether or not it is deployed to a bank account.