There are two goals to acquiring rental property: Monthly cash flow and capital appreciation. Capital appreciation refers to the idea that if you purchase a property now, you should be able to sell it later for a profit. The natural appreciation of real property will differ by community and type of property.
Monthly cash flow is more critical for most investors and is trickier to understand and estimate. I've provided a file to assist you in estimating your monthly cash flow once you've estimated your revenue and costs.
Download this file, fill in the blanks and see if your potential rental property will be cash flow positive:
--> Rental Cash Flow Estimator.xls <--