Of course, always factor in reserves.  

  ( Douglas Ranch).. its owned by a B guy from Denver he owns the Denver avalanche and i think might have married a Walton.So we get word he is coming to the lodge for dinner.. and oh man you should have seen the staff.. but what happened was his security team came in that morning for a sweep.. and this is a lodge on a 500k acre ranch.. behind locked gates. 

I wake up every morning at 6am and don’t leave for work until 12pm.

This is Not a “figure it out as you go” project......many times the short sale is doomed when the purchase contract is signed, not considering all the proper factors that a first timer would never have heard of. 

After getting everything stabilized and looking deeper into the actual numbers there were a multitude of factors that led us to decide to sell.

Of course, there are several other factors like, if you take over the payments what is the rate and remaining term, etc.Here's an example of a "no equity" property that we recently "overpaid" for:Purchase price $180k - purchased subject to the original mortgage which was a 3.25% loan with a PITI payment of $940. 

While I acknowledge that economic strength is just one facet of a good rental market, it is a major factor and I wanted to share what I've found (the details of my methodology and raw data can be found after the various rankings):Top 10 best economiesProvo-Orem, UTSalt Lake City, UTCharlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SCChicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WIDallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TXKansas City, MO-KSLongview, TXLouisville/Jefferson County, KY-INSan Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CABirmingham-Hoover, ALThere were two main factors to overall economic strength that I looked at – how diverse/broad the economy is and how many economic drivers (i.e. strength) the area has.

@Angelo Van - If you are looking for starting up advice, check out this post.For expenses to factor in your rental calculations, check out this post.

I have some very good lender contacts for vacation homes.  3) Success will be contingent on a number of factors. 

you can get 80% on a 5-7 year term but credit score DSCR and occupancy rate will be determining factors.