Sometimes i run into people who claim a positive cash flow but invariably when i get the details it is because they are not taking into consideration the value of the current value of the home or their down payment etc  BUT with some of the appreciation rates there has been a lot of money can be made with buy and hold..at least if you had bought 4 years ago.  

Like @Bryce Wong mentioned - how much to charge for your security deposit, and whether to charge last month's rent up front is usually dictated by local custom, so you need to know what policy other landlords in your area are going with.I recommend looking at other rental listings on Zillow, Trulia, Hotpads, etc in your neighborhood - usually those terms will be included by the more professional property managers/landlords.Another consideration is the total cost.

Now it's barely a blip on the radar when a few units get deployed.Atleast 50% of applicants the last time i had a vacant rental (July) were from Nashville looking to escape the rising rents, which is keeping rental rates healthy hereYou can find rentals at/above the 1% rent rule all day longCreative financing is alive and well here as it's more of a buyer's marketGood luck to ya!

I would travel on the company's dime for work to cool cities/countries, rented a massive fully furnished basement for $400/mo all utilities paid in a beautiful home, and had bought one of my favorite cars (used BMW M3 for under $10k).Since the past 2.5 years I have started investing in real estate, I have improved my income considerably.

When I saw the property I knew it would need considerable work and after running the numbers I knew it was a good deal but I would have to do some of the fixing.  

That's a considerable amount.  

Thanks, @Neal Collins, you're absolutely right: I'll need to do a lot of homework on the mortgages, taxes, potential fees etc. for any given property.Another big reason I'm doing this is that there are a lot of attractive reasons to go from having an external office for my business (which is currently the case) to having an in-home office that would be tax deductible and essentially give me a discount on my house payment.However, another consideration that I must be careful of is that with seller-financing, a seller can sell the house as-is with possibly a huge number of repairs/some deeply fundamental repair needed.

And it's important to keep in mind that only a max of 75% of the rental income is usually taken into account to offset your income (to take things like vacancy rate, maintenance, etc into consideration).  

There are other considerations such as what to do w/large SD-IRAs where you can't be too active / hands on or you violate IRS rules.  

But when speaking to the experts, they tell me prices will continue to rise for the next year or two at least.