I looked up apartments reviews in college towns where room-by-room renting was going on and just saw a flood of consistent negative reviews.  

It should never be necessary to remind tenants they owe rent and most likely received in a negative way. 

...proof that one didn't know enough at that point in time (<-- giving it a positive spin)...proof that one didn't pay attention to what one was doing (<-- giving it a negative spin)...will always happen and are an integral part of a learning process (<-- to close with a positive spin!)

So go ahead with the purchase even it is a manageable negative flow.Are there other costs associated that I need to know about?

Hello Bo.Question: if you did a refi to a 30 year loan, would the property cash flow or would it still be in the negative?

If you don't care about rate, closing costs can be $0 or even a negative number.

Overall it has been a very positive experience though, well worth the negatives.

They do have negatives, but they are not shared to qualify for.  

The problems are 1)markets where appreciation above inflation is sustained over decades is exceedingly rare (but they do exist), 2)in these type of markets your initial cash flow will be much lower (but not in the long run with rent increases) as compared to a market with high initial cash flow and no appreciation (negative appreciation after inflation), and 3)markets with long term appreciation by definition are not cheap so you will need some capital to get started.

Maybe I'm going about this wrong and someone can help correct my thought process (I'm using the 50% rule to estimate expenses since the proforma data seems suspect).Here is one example that I have seen:Property X$2,200,000.00Down Payment$770,000.00Loan Amount$1,430,000.00Annual Loan-$86,947.20Units111bed3Rent/unit$1,015.00Market Rent$1,050.002bed8Rent/unit$1,279.00Market Rent$1,305.00Gross Income$167,684.00NOI (50% rule)$83,842.00Yearly Income-$3,105.20Cash on Cash-0.40%Actual Cap rate3.81%Almost every property in my local area looks pretty similar to this one with negative COC or COC of 1-2%.