But the point is to narrow down your pool of prospective landlords and waste fewer application fees where you don't stand a chance based on your credit.Good luck!

@Alex CritcherI would try to narrow down exactly what you want your first move to be.

That will help you narrow down your ARV.To your questions:1.

@Israel RonYou need to narrow down to a state and then to a market.

Each state will have different requirements, so you are best to narrow the area you want and know ahead of time what conditions you are looking for.

After conducting some market research, we have narrowed our search to 3 cities each.

It takes some time, but worth it as you will be able to narrow it down, or at least should be able to. 

I heard a tip from one of the guests of episode #300 of the BiggerPockets podcast that said it's better to invest in a better location (class B and up) while getting less cashflow, than to invest in a class C (and below) location although more cashflow is possible, due to the higher price-to-rent ratios.This is because better locations generally have better tenants, and although investing in a lower class location gives better cashflow, the possible tenant headache may not be worth it.What are your thoughts on this?

You will gain a lot more perspective which may help you narrow in on how to get started.

We are in a seller's market in all price bands up to around $700k.