You may be better off waiting til your score improves, or perhaps you'd be better off paying down some debt.

Has anyone had renters do improvements on the property this way?

The cost for repairs can vary significantly, depending on the 'quality' of the improvement.

Any improvement in vacancy rate is mostly profit the way I calculated your expenses.

I would like to find either properties that will generate cash flow or to flip as I believe that the areas still offer good chances of significant returns.

The answer to that is to invest in the markets that give you the best chance to achieve whatever your objective is, so start with a clear objective.

@Ryan Steele thank you so much for the information as I did get a chance to read over everything from the website and I will be at the meeting this Thursday with a couple other individuals that are interested in real estate as well.

I focus my practice on business litigation, evictions (commercial/residential) as well as partnership disputes, construction/home improvement litigation and real estate transactions.

The chances of you removing the mortgage insurance, either as MIP or PMI are slim to none this early in your loan.

ARV is one of the most critical aspects of the puzzle to estimate correctly for your investments, with so much on the line why would you chance it?