In Baltimore, popular areas like Canton and Fed Hill will not bring much cash flow so your  ROI will be very low unless you want to do renovations.You can invest in mid level neighborhoods like Morgan State area, some parts of Charles Village, Higlandtown so you get a decent renter and get a good ROI.

Talk to a few house stagers (who work with successful Realtors) in the local area and see what's popular regarding colors and etc...Good Luck!

I lived in Seattle for 14 years and started with two rentals there however for those living in a primary market and being a high paid professional turnkey rentals are the way to go to get started in Birmingham, Atlanta, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Memphis, Little Rock, Jacksonville, Ohio, or other secondary or tertiary markets. 

Minisplits have become pretty popular due to their energy efficiency & price point plus the fact that you can control temperature in each room.

Absentee Owners have been popular for a long time, and are apparently still somewhat effective (people are still mailing to them) but they are getting multiple offers to buy their home.

Do we just need to find a property at a rock bottom price to make these numbers work out?

If it works with that number, it should really rock at 75-80%.Having $1,000,000 of cash to work with just means you have much more flexibility in financing than most.

Im looking around on some of the more popular websites like Zillow, Loopnet, Realtor etc. 

I have a condo in the heart of the lower greenville, one of the most popular neighborhoods in the city, that I haven't been able to rent for 2 months.

If you look at solds you get a feel for what the best possible deals look like, where rock bottom is.