I was going to use a 30yr conventional loan with 25% down to buy this property and use as a rental, estimated rents in the area for similar homes are around $950/month, the ARV for this house if you did a full remodel are in the $130-135K range.  

from the way I understand it, the things that would worry me about the brrrr strategy given your situation are these:1) need to include closing costs on top of 20% dp, let's estimate $3500 just to be safe.2) how to make absolutely certain your remaining funds would increase the value of the $100k rental to $138k.

I spoke with a Quicken Loan lender just to get a quick estimate of what kind of price range I was looking at for my first REI (also first home purchase).

Scott The Book on Flipping Houses, The Book on Estimating ReHab Costs http://www.biggerpockets.com/flippingbookConsider checking out HUD homes for small multi's owner occupied gets first crack.

I estimate $1500 a year for both cap ex and repairs. anything left over from repairs goes to savings for cap ex.

Scott The Book on Flipping Houses, The Book on Estimating ReHab Costs http://www.biggerpockets.com/flippingbookConsider checking out HUD homes for small multi's owner occupied gets first crack.

Scott The Book on Flipping Houses, The Book on Estimating ReHab Costs http://www.biggerpockets.com/flippingbookConsider checking out HUD homes for small multi's owner occupied gets first crack.

Scott The Book on Flipping Houses, The Book on Estimating ReHab Costs http://www.biggerpockets.com/flippingbookConsider checking out HUD homes for small multi's owner occupied gets first crack.

Scott The Book on Flipping Houses, The Book on Estimating ReHab Costs http://www.biggerpockets.com/flippingbookConsider checking out HUD homes for small multi's owner occupied gets first crack.

Its hard to find comps in the little town we are in, but I am estimating the house would sell for 150-180k, rent would be about $1000, with a $750 positive cash flow.