Some quick numbers for you, @Alex Chau, that could help you narrow your search down etc.What $100k "cash to close" will get you, assuming Oakland/Berkeley transfer taxes (higher in area, so being conservative) and non-owner occupant.$560k, SFR, 85% LTV.$360k, 2-4 unit, 75% LTV (looks like we've probably departed Oakland...).Bump those numbers a few grand if you're looking in cities without city transfer taxes. 

House hacking is by far one of the best ways to conserve cash and free up some bills, pay off debt, double or triple down on mortgage, etc.  

I’m a new investor so I’m using very basic rules of thumb like the 2% rule for rents and the 50% rule for expenses when doing my initial analysis and I’d like to know if I’m being overly conservative and pricing myself out of deals.So if I see a duplex for sale and the asking price is $150k, using the 2% rule tells me I would need to receive $3k ($1.5k per unit) per month to properly cash flow the property.Now, let’s say actual rents per unit are $850 per month bringing that to a total of $1.7k per month.

Even buying retail, lets just assume that the $300/month of leveraged cash flow turns to $0 after long term CapEx (a very conservative assumption).

He used the more conservative expense estimate of $2,199, not $1,612 to get the $17.

Some people are not comfortable with hard money but it really conserves your funds.  

Let's say you fly out to your property once a year to check it out (you don't even have to do that, but we'll be conservative). $300 plane ticket, couple nights in a hotel $200, misc travel expenses...let's just say $600 a year to go check out your property.

I would run your numbers conservatively (not more than $950) and see if the deal still makes sense to you.

Her conservator was handling the sale in her behalf.  

If you can get the asking price down to where you would have some positive cash flow with what it is currently being rented for (or conservative estimates of rent in the area) then it might be worth it.