Every time I have analyzed a short term opportunity, the cash flow tends to be close to the same as a traditional rental.

It obviously would not hit the 1% rule, but should be positive cash flow by maybe a couple hundred bucks a month when we move out. 

The initial returns are lower on paper in better locations (lower cap rate, less initial cashflow according to the magic spreadsheet), but the overall returns in reality are much better including all the different ways people make money in real estate (gained equity through natural and forced appreciation, principle pay-down, increasing rents= higher cash flow when looking at the big picture if you buy and hold, depreciation tax benefits, plus way less of the big profit killers like turnover, non-paying tenants, property damage and theft, dealing with bad contractors because good ones don’t choose to work in bad areas either, etc.). 

@Karen Wanamarta I'm having a really hard time finding anything that comes remotely close to cash flow, or really even being very profitable as a property to hold in this area.

It has low taxes, decent cash flow, and light to moderate appreciation.

I am new to this and am open to being shown I'm incorrect, but I have finally duplicated the problem with a spreadsheet since it was driving me crazy.The formula for "Profit if sold" is Property Value - Sales Expenses - Loan Balance - Cash Needed + Cumulative Cash Flow. 

Are you cash flowing the property?

It forces people to stay organized.Chores - we had a cleaning schedule where we would rotate each week what had to be done.

If house-hacking isn't your thing, then maybe BRRRR is, or even just identifying buy-and-holds to just start getting some kind of cash flow is an alternative as well.Happy to help where i can, good luck!

With the $15k upgrades, the home would be NOI $9,208/ 12.88% CoC ROI and a cash flow of $767 month.