Being patient with finding a quality tenant is paramount, especially when you don't have a lot of units to offset one or two bad apples.

I doubt we could dip much lower than that salary so our hope was one-year reserves would create the safety net we need but we also don't want to be overly cautious.To the question of can we find enough flips, based on what we have been finding online in our research if we include the surrounding suburbs we should find more than enough.We have been looking at properties here in Portland and are considering doing a flip if we find the right deal.

The 3 things that may be going on for you that I can think of are: 1- November-December is a slow time for rentals so you need to be more patient (I just filled 2 vacancies, and it was slower, but not that bad for me.) 2- what are your basic qualifications?

Be patient. 

I am not pressed for cash and deal velocity so I can be patient helping find my buyers the right property.

Lastly, I suppose finding an agent to be patient with me will be difficult.

This will handle the problem with your PM.The Tenants won't be so easy to evict because they have legitimate requests: health issues means safety.

Not exactly running, I have been patiently crawling and walking haha. 

Take your time though, as this game is a very certain path towards wealth if you invest wisely and patiently.

I plan on starting a savings account specifically for these costs, but once I have a nice safety net in the bank, I'll feel comfortable using the additional income toward property acquisition.