By July we will have around $20,000 to work, not including our reserves.

We felt relatively safe buying ours as they had just gone through an over $16K per unit special assessment several years earlier for new roof and siding and had raised the condo fees to build the reserves up so it doesn't happen again.  

You NEED reserves for any type of investing in my opinion.

I would guess that the lender would somehow reserve the right to do more than just wag their finger.

I found another quick way of doing it:25% of gross rent for vacancy, repairs, and reserves (you can use this rule because these are just allowances, not measured expenses)Plus $50 per month for insurance (on SFR)Plus the taxes from the county website (Make sure to add town/county, city/village, AND school; zillow is almost always missing one portion; also be sure to remove any exemptions an owner-occupant currently gets)That tells me what my cash flow will be before financing.  

I found that being more reserved, not cocky or trying to come across as some hot shot telling others the "how tos"  was much better, you'll actually be better off asking questions and making a suggestion, almost as a question is a good approach.

I totaly forgot to put in the details:SFH3 bed / 1.5 Bath1140 Sq FeetContract Purchase Price 125,000Closing costs: ~4,000Budget allowed for fix up: 8,000 (seeking contractors that are investor friendly in the Sacramento Area if you know any) Down Payment: 25,000All in costs: 37,000Expected rent: 1,200 per monthLess Vacancy allowance: 1,100Income: 1,100 per month/ 13,200 per yearExpenses:PM: 120 per month (even though I plan to self manage aka pay my self)Repairs and maintance: 120 (using 10% for now as I will have a sizable reserve set aside to start but there should be very little needed after fix up)Insurance: 63.75 per monthUtilities: 0 (I plan to have all utilities paid by the tenant, water I will cover and bill back to tenant on the next months rent, looking for insight on this from other Sacramento landlords)Total Monthly expenses: 303.75Net Operating Income (NOI): 796.25 per monthDebt Service (PI): 521.65 (100,000 @ 4.75% 30 years)Property taxes: 130.00 per monthNet Cash flow: 144.60 per month / 1,735.20 per year Plus PM Fees: 264.60 per month / 3,175.20 per yearEstimated equity at purchase after initial fix up / rehab: ~75,000

Do your research...if you have decent credit, income and/or cash reserves, you can find loans...

Mean while we are using the profits to build a 6 months reserve in the bank and to fix it up so that it will appraise higher when the time comes to refinance. 

Again I'm assuming all spare rent after reserves goes to the mortgage, because I want to accelerate the happy day when the milking period begins and all the rent goes into my pocket.