Frustrated about lack of cash flow

[Allen L.]

Long story short, my fiance and I own 5 properties in US and Canada generating about $88K USD of gross annual rental income. 4 are SFH and 1 Duplex. However our estimated annual cash flow is $6500 USD after PITI, property management fee, 8% vacancy, and estimated capex and maintenance. Other than my first property in the US in TX which I purchased before being introduced to BP is theoretically losing cash flow due to high property taxes and 0.8% rent/purchase price, the other properties are cash flowing positive after ample cushion for capex. Perhaps I'm being harder on capex and maintenance than others, I don't use the percentage rule, I calculate capex and maintenance as straight $2750 for SFH and $4000 for duplex.

I'm a bit shocked at reading all of these posts on BP about how much cash everyone is getting per property, and would like to find out what's the best way to replicate the same strategy. I haven't done any BRRRR or flips, I mostly buy properties needing a little work and rent it out within a month of purchase. I've evaluated BRRRR on a few properties found on MLS and found most of them do not cash flow significantly better than a good "move in ready" deal on MLS considering all the rehab costs, carry, and refi costs. I want to pursue wholesaling opportunities but haven't been able to pull the trigger on a deal due to the fact that I don't have access to a HML, the best thing I have is a commercial lender that can include rehab in loan but he was kind of skeptical of me because I am OOS and haven't had any experience managing BRRRR, but from what I hear you need either cash or HML to lock down wholesale properties. It also seems most people pay for rehab using their own cash, so it's insane to me how much cash is needed to execute a proper BRRRR. I'm open to the idea of BRRRR but is definitely a little skeptical. Maybe I'm not looking at the right place or have the right contacts. I'm open to any 200K+ population city. My question - how do I improve my cash flow situation?