What square footage do you want; any tenants that you will or will not accept; what lease terms will you accept; do you require credit tenants and corporate guarantees; what is your going-in, hold period and terminal cap rate target; what are your target demographics (HH $, Crime, MSA, zip code); debt/equity/reserve structure?  

Anything left over goes into a reserve for the roof you need to buy or the siding you have to replace, or the AC unit that fails.

If you want to take speculative risks (and get the potential rewards) you'd better have solid reserves.

You need reserve funds, available cash, if you are thinking of becoming a landlord.Worse case rent it as is for now.

There are some months you'll feel like a real estate millionaire, I urge you, please save that money as a reserve for the rainy days!

When I run my APOD, I get the following numbers: Synopsis Purchase Price $ 270,000 Downpayment 20 % $ 54,000 Amount Financed $ 216,000 Gross Income $ 27,600 NOI $ 16,004 Debt Service $ 16,416.60 Monthly "Cash Flow" $ (34.38)This is assuming 7% for PM, Reserves and Vacancy, with tenants paying all bills, except Insurance (1000/yr), taxes (3000/yr) and HOA fee of 1800/yr.

And you'll want to show some cash reserves in your account as well in addition to the down payment.

If your goal is to buy more properties, why aren't you using that "excess" 12% of your income to build up the cash reserve to buy? 

I've done my due diligence with regards to finances (paying down non-productive debt, accumulating cash reserves) and have begun reading all of the recommended books per the ultimate beginners guide.I need some assistance in the following areas:Analyzing deals: I have calculator (link) that uses assumptions to determine if the property merits further investigation.

That's when you start seeing minimum credit scores, cash reserves, experience, debt coverage ratios etc.