I lived in Seattle for 14 years and started with two rentals there however for those living in a primary market and being a high paid professional turnkey rentals are the way to go to get started in Birmingham, Atlanta, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Memphis, Little Rock, Jacksonville, Ohio, or other secondary or tertiary markets. 

There seems to be some red flags here.

Do we just need to find a property at a rock bottom price to make these numbers work out?

If it works with that number, it should really rock at 75-80%.Having $1,000,000 of cash to work with just means you have much more flexibility in financing than most.

If you look at solds you get a feel for what the best possible deals look like, where rock bottom is.

If you are looking for an area that has a strong tech presence, then Boulder or maybe Castle Rock will be your jam.

If you bring in the city inspector be prepared to have the home red tagged if you didn’t pull all the proper permits.  

It is odd that he has shown you things outside your price range, that’s a little red flag for me.

A minimal application fee to cover a background check (max $200) or the cost of an appraisal up front is okay (usually paid to a third party), but paying thousands of dollars up front is a red flag. 

He did, bought a card in with the correct number, but the card looked newly printed, and when I rub the red ink from the card onto a piece of blank paper, the red ink came off.