House-shopping in Syracuse - 1st home/owner occupant via FHA

[Cerwin Haynes]

Hello all. My name is Cerwin and I just joined here last week after checking out a few podcasts over the past couple of months. I'm in the market to begin my real estate investing - I am looking for a 3-unit (or the "right" 2-unit) as an owner occupant to cashflow. I'm looking inner-city Syracuse; while I don't need a "pampered" neighborhood, I also don't want to live somewhere where there's gunshots every night (I joked with my agent that once or twice a week is OK).

Within my financial parameters, I've been looking at houses between 30-70K. Lately, the 50K, 60-65K three-units I've come across are in higher tax areas (around $3800 annually) AND they need substantial rehab, like a total roof replacement. Mortgage broker then says "no can do", even if I consider a purchase offer that subtracts the cost of the expected rehab (203K) from the asking price.

My agent thinks I may need to "steal one" to secure a purchase on a house within my price range that doesn't need over 10, 15K of rehab. I've attained a list of properties from the Syracuse LandBank that aren't foreclosed on but are delinquent or set to be closed upon next year. I've checked out some youtube vids on door-knocking and such, but these houses aren't occupied by the owners (a lot of out of town investors/owners here). So any suggestions on how to reach out to owners of said properties? Thanks.