If you finance a deal your looking at Cash on Cash (CoC) of what you have in it versus what the total cash flow is. 

Total waste of my time to call on those form letters offering to buy my property for CASH.

I've been looking for solid real estate related data sets online.

Hello, I'm considering the purchase of a distressed home in a semi-rural area of Washtenaw County, Michigan for the purpose of a total rehab.  

The number of months of (total) operating expenses you should have in reserve will go down as your portfolio grows (If you have 10 units and 1 goes vacant, you're still getting 90% of your rental income).Its a numbers game really... 

Big banks like that tend to change their parameters often anyways, so I may be on a totally different platform compared to whats being offered now.

In the past, I've accepted checks with no problems and online transfers with no problems.

You can look at many places online to find out what the rent comparables are for your house's area and price it accordingly.

For example a simple duplex in my area that is on two separate parcels would cost $200K each for a total 400k.

House hacking might be a good place to start as it will provide you the least total out of pocket.