I have a decent job, no debt, and a decent amount in cash reserves.

Many are on the west coast, Charlotte or Florida and we're in the DC metro area; in truth it's just not realistic.Here are a couple of things to think about:The rule of thumb for most hard money lenders is they want the borrower to come up with at least 10% of the purchase price (depending on your experience, that number is more realistically in the 20% down area) with 10% of the rehab budget in reserves. 

If not this is a judgement call but may be a good opportunity assuming they have cash reserves and have documented proof of on time payments for their housing and other bills. 

Make sure to read over the contract to confirm the deposits supposed to be in installments.

Then, if anyone starts asking questions, decline the reservation.

Over time I have also seen the number of financed properties, reserve amount requirements and percentage down payments fluctuate.

Look into building up your knowledge and cash reserves before entering real estate (you may also want to look into investing in the stock market while you wait to join real estate investing). 

To keep it simple, I won't include reserve amounts or rehab costs.

I was able to use my tenants first/last to make the first mortgage payment - I have a 3 months of reserves - work a great job.

Just to confirm the NOI is found by using NOI = Revenue - Operating ExpensesThen the (operating expenses) are property management, property taxes, repair/maintenance and insurance.