Purchase Price (ideally): $46,000INCOME: $1,000/mo ($500/unit)EXPENSES Vacancy Loss (@8% or 1mo/yr): $80/moCap-Ex (@10%): $100/moProp Mgmt (@10%): $100/moOngoing Repairs (@10%): $100/moProp Taxes: $60/moInsurance (guesstimate, will get quote soon): $75/moTOTAL EXPENSES: $515FINANCING: 20% down, 30 year fixed, 4.70% interest rate.  

If you buy at $115k and put 20% down then I would guess your PITI would be around $650-700or so which would leave about $1150-1200 a month for your other expenses (vacancy,  maintenance, ult,  wsg,  hoa) and then whatever left over will be your cash flow.  

I say on paper, because even if the numbers look good, but you are in a bad neighborhood, your returns will be hurt by high turnover, vacancies, expensive make readies, and property crime.  

We don't mind some vacancy since we'll just be turning it over to our management company, but we're not looking for much work here.We are flexible so don't consider those absolute requirements, but if you have $350/monthly per unit and it's 50% rented, we're not going to be interested. 

If your properties are financed, don't forget to keep a fund to account for long term vacancies, also.

We never go more than $25-50 below market rent, you are better off having a longer vacancy and renting it at the higher rate.I'll admit that as a landlord I would prefer fewer people living in my units, but my criteria and decisions are based on other defined and defensible criteria.

For your house I would estimate a total of $1,767.I also assume tenant turn over every two years and that property management of 10% of rent + one month's rent to fill a vacancy.

In no particular order: per capita income, crime rate, vacancy rate, average rent, average home price, population growth/decline, school quality.

I would try using this calculator and input conservative numbers for your pro forma rents, repair budget, taxes, insurance, vacancy, and other misc costs.Also, I was listening to the blog, reading posts, and previewed 100 homes over a 6 months process before I pulled the trigger.

The more issues there are (deferred maintenance, under-managed, vacancies, etc), the better position you will be, and the more the seller may consider creatively structured financing.If the numbers end up working out for you and the seller is open to carrying paper, offer incremental down payments, which has worked for me.