I offset risk and vacancy by locking in a long term tenant with a competitive rate and great cosmetic condition.

If you run your numbers and factor those periods in as "vacancy" and it still works then you're good.

Vacancy is a huge cost so I’d focus on cutting that down vs always being at the top of market rents all the time.

In many markets, that has become "a security deposit equal to a month's rent" or even just some type of security deposit insurance program - largely to stay competitive, attract tenants, and reduce vacancy. 

$100 AFTER reserves for vacancy, capex, repairs, and PM?

I properly allocate a percentage of the overall rent to expenses like CapEx, vacancy etc, but on top of that, how much should you have set aside in order to sufficiently cover any unexpected expenses.

Because the vacancy rate is already quite high in this city and likely only to move higher as people are evicted after job losses in the next few months.

To me this is not a good deal but i just wanted to bounce my math off of others to make sure i understand how to judge these things.Purchase price 330,000Market value 360,000Rent 800 per unit = 3200/monthMortgage 1700Expenses per month including mortgage 2800 (Mortgage, insurance, property management (8%), HOA, taxes, 10% vacancy expense)Profit would be roughly 400 a monthCap Rate would be around 1.3%This assumes the units need zero repairs......do i have my calculations right?

Luckily the plan is to have cash on hand to off set vacancies.

Now, depending on what types of deals I’m considering, I may also examine vacancy rates and average rental amounts specific to the type of units I might be acquiring.I have to respectfully disagree with a prior comment that Zillow is a healthy tool to use when performing market analysis based on the inconsistencies with regards to the accuracy of the data on Zillow.