Looking At First Property

[Jonathon Klem]

I've been reading "The Book of Rental Property Investing", I've been lurking and searching in the forums, and I've been crunching some numbers.  I think I'm ready to ask to see a property and put a bid on it, but I'm concerned I may be missing something since the Cash Flow #s seem significantly higher (better) when using the SFH_Rental_Analysis spreadsheet than my own 'back of the envelope' calculations and since there's so much more going on in that spreadsheet than my own I'm not sure what I may be missing.

The Facts:

I'm looking at a property that the seller is asking about half of what Zillow estimates the property to be worth, and about $10k less than its last sold value.  It's a triplex.  2 units share a meter and are occupied.  Currently the owner pays all utilities and they only rent for $500 and $450.  There is a third unit that has been vacant for a little less than a year and the current owner's excuse is that it needs some rehab but they mention that "because of other properties needing investment, we haven't fixed this".   One of the current tenants has only been there for a couple months and the other one has been there since '99.  

They're asking $34k for the property.  I think this makes financing interesting as I won't be able to get a traditional mortgage.  I have about $10k cash. With some creative asset shuffling I think I could muster up $20k cash.  

Currently this owner is operating at a loss (they gave a spreadsheet of the financials) and I did some more digging and this seems to be a retiree that may just not have any interest in running this anymore.  So it's not outside the realm of possible that she may be motivated to sell on contract.

Aside from the financing, I had it figured this property may need $7000 - $12550 in repairs (basing this off the size of the unit they said needs rehabbing, and estimated cost of making each unit on its own separate meter)

My Question

I know I need to do some more work on figuring out the financing/purchasing, but I think I could make it work in this range.  But my question would be, are there better banks/lending devices to work with that would make it easier?  I already own 2 businesses that are organized as subsidiaries of holding companies and have decent revenue, so I'm curious of a situation like this with these small of numbers if there are lines of credit that may be easier.  

Also, is there anything specific I should be worrying about in the walk through?  I'm in Indiana.  Are there resources I can look up to see if i can wait and enact new leases that include tenant paying utilties and what legal issues I may encounter there?