Bottom line for a lot of places: better locations are already taken, and if you are in a very high growth area then your odds are higher, if not, your odds are about 0 percent.

The infamous '1 percent rule' is not possible and a pipe dream, especially in high cost of living locations.I am a San Diego native.  

Let me give more details to give some rationale behind my thoughts:My SF condo is breaking-even and although it is technically not under rent-control, my current tenant has a LIFETIME lease.

If I was you I would continue to save I would get a RE license and then intern with a developer  commercial broker big management company something like that.. learn the industry keep saving.... and or work as an agent part time and learn how to make money in the industry you have a lifetime to invest.. and in most markets If your talking rentals the prices of the homes never move much anyway.. half the people on here just invest for cash flow and acknowledge the homes will never be worth much more than they paid for them.. so no reason to feel a need.. learn the industry first.. and learn were the big bucks are and its not in owning a few rentals I can assure you of that....

You could apply a percent of egi based on the build year for a blanket maintenance-cap ex-rehab estimate, but it's not going to be anything more than an educated guess.

You should WANT distressed property].If you've saved enough to have TEN percent of what a 4-plex would cost you, what would stop you from just putting 3.5% down (and saving the rest for reserves)?

Auction.com can start off with fifty and sometimes hundreds of properties each month.

But I'm not 100-percent. 

You might share some details, like price, the percent paid down, interest rates, rental amounts, insurance and tax amounts, even your monthly mortgage payments to help others see how it is done.

I would lock that up rather than save a percent in the short term but practically guarantee a higher rate later in the life of the loan.