I've even had people tell me that "it's perfectly safe, you can even get title insurance on it".

The only thing is I need to learn more about the Flood Insurance process and need more education about purchasing in flood zones.

Hi Minnesota, I am wondering where you all have found the best value on insurance.   

(Cash flows around $160 factoring including loan payment, insurance, property taxes, 5% vacancy expense, and 15% of rent for CapEx and Repairs.

Our insurance went to $1600 p.a. but we added it back into the rent but we had to accept exclusions for painting & any other flammable storage.

I found posts like this to be helpful when I was first learning about investing in real estate, so hopefully someone on here can get something out of it.Our goals were to cash flow $100 per month per door, have a cash-on-cash ROI of 12%, and achieve a total return of 20%.Purchase price: $179,900Our loan is a 30-year fixed rate residential mortgage at 4.25%25% Downpayment: $44,975Mortgage Payment (Principal & Interest): $663.75Operating Income$26,435 scheduled gross rents (4 units)$(1001) vacancy$600 garage rent$11 interest$26,045 gross operating incomeOperating ExpensesProperty Management (10% of gross rents): $(2543)Leasing fee for new tenant placement: $(550)Sewer: $(1397)Water & Trash: $(1232)Lawn care/mowing: $(350)Gas & electric during vacancy: $(228)City occupancy inspection aka government extortion fees: $(183)Maintenance & Repairs: $(3594)Property Taxes: $(2009)Insurance: $(983)$(13,069) gross operating expenseNet Operating Income: $12,976Mortgage P&I: $(7965)Cash Flow Before Taxes: $5,011Cash-on-cash return: 11%Equity Accrued: $2275Total Return: $7286Total ROI: 16%We hit our cash flow number almost exactly at $104 per door while our ROI and total return came in a little under our projections, but pretty damn close.

Personally I look at the $500 as insurance, or knowing that I have someone to talk to if issues do arise. 

You have home insurance on the property and paying it, right?

My payment for each of these two are $1350 each including insurance and taxes.  

We tried to minimize risk with renting to high quality military NCO/officer, good property managers, friendly neighbors for eyes on property, maintenance insurance, money in savings, and long term hold for time to gain the equity and have rents rise over time (which haven't actually risen as much as I'd thought).Sorry for the long note, but that is our single family rental  experience as a military member using VA loans from 2002 until now.Cheers!