If you can get the rent up above $700 then it sounds like a solid play.

./104th)Purchase and sale agreement, with a standard escrow.Escrow closes upon date certain, or when the city issues unappealabel entitlements, zoning etc.DD of some period, 30, 60, 90 day, with some non-refundable upon reaching this date.Reason to do it this way is you have a solid contract, if and when you receive zoning, you can close without question.

. , I definitely don't condone complete time waste, but I certainly think you should do it in an appropriate manner. 

Would not waste the time.

Make sure you have a solid emergency fund and have done your research about rental rates before making your rental home purchase.

Without a solid game plan, and numbers that you want to hit.

That has not worked and I've lost out on a few homes I was very interested in because the agent either didn't get back to me in time, or didn't know the area well to offer solid advice, or didn't want to put in much of an effort other than to send my some automated search result (which I often had already). 

Once you are all on the same page, have the same expectations and a rock solid agreement and plan in place then the fun begins.

You get to learn a TON about how your business should work, and will avoid losing loads of cash to a management company—they may be convenient but the good ones aren't cheap.Plus, it's not too hard to find good software and tools to help you out with managing, if you want something more solid than an Excel sheet and a contact list.

Most of the time a good rental will be in a solid neighborhood, but it won’t be huge, it won’t be new, and it won’t have granite countertops.