It finally rusted through maybe three months ago and the replacement from Lowe's was only $400-something dollars. 

I'm am pretty new here to Bigger Pockets.

I've been a bigger pockets member for some years now and finally dedicated my focus towards changing my life.

I am quickly realizing it's difficult to find 1) properties which meet the 1% test, and 2) properties which cash flow positive from year 1 (unless we increase our down payment from 3.5% to something much higher).I would like to get two pieces of advice from the Bigger Pockets community in Massachusetts.

Of the business I get from bigger pockets, a significant amount is from people that just got burned and lost their $20,000 earnest money deposit after failing to close on a house.

You don't let them dictate things for three years.

I'm going to make this short and not sure if this is right place for this but I have used bigger pockets for other questions and have never got let down and I really need some help here. 

You want to save a little each month for this so it isn't coming out of your pocket.

Does this effectively buy me time to fund the EMD at no cost out of pocket?

You are correct with all three issues, but here is what I would say about them.