The current owner wants no part in taking care of the illegal set up.

All I can say is that the resources that are here on this site will be some of the best content to immerse yourself in. Take

Tom,I was able to get a HELOC through Regions Bank.I am also interested in taking out equity from rental properties which I own that have no mortgages on them.Any recommendations would be appreciated.Take care!

I'd also love to make some connections in the area with folks who can lend expertise in taking a look at relative fixer-uppers and judging needs and costs.

Then on one unit that you're supposedly living in, take away that rent rate and that should give you a picture of how much you'll be expecting to set aside for expenses since you'll be living nearly for free as your tenant will be paying most, if not all, of the mortgage/expenses for you. 

You’ll never be a professional, the podcasts are a great way to intake information but if you ever hear what they say they always say they learn new things.

But it's probably an intake issue.

There is no shame in taking a few months to build a good platform to accelerate your investing career off of.Third thing I would do, once you get over educating, is to build a criteria for what you want to invest in (1- property type, 2- location, 3- condition, 4- price range, and 5-profitability wanted) and also your strategy (being a first timer, house hacking is arguably the best intro into REI and it will only cost 5-10% down payment while also having tax benefits when going to sell).

It doesn’t really seem to be much benefit in taking the current property.

I may be interested in taking out a hard money loan for a BRRRR deal.