I usually get 10-12% interest as a private lender.3) Low risk.

Quote from @Lawrence Mitchell: @Jaycee Greene  I'm looking to obtain insight about single family homes and potentially elevate to multi-family properties.

Quote from @Scott Bloom: You can get a commercial grade policy from major carriers where they lump the risk across multiple properties into one policy, reducing your premiums.  

I've got about 7k in an emergency savings account.I am in the process of getting several mortgage pre-approvals to compare fees and get an idea of how much home I can realistically afford.I have yet to find a buyer's agent/investor to help me identify potential homes but will start on that shortly.Ideally, I would like to buy a single family home.

There is one and only one insurance company in town who will insure the property due to its fire risk.

EDUCATE YOURSELF - yes, it will take time, but will lead to a selection that better meets your expectations & avoids potentially costly surprises!

From there we identify properties that could have some potential and if you are interesting in diving deeper, 1) we do a thorough video walkthrough to give you a realistic look of the property, 2) we give a ballpark estimate of rehab costs (we do 40 a year with our GCs o we will get pretty close), 3) we talk through market rent with our property management team, ARV, and potential highest and best use.Ideally you find great investor agents who know their market really well and have a network of resources to provide you with enough confidence to take reasonable action. 

., Investing for "what if" is fraught with risk. 

If you're open to $120-180k, I would recommend looking into Columbus Ohio as it does have much better growth and appreciation potential than Cleveland and Dayton. 

But we also do occasional drive-byes and annual inspections to see how the tenants are caring for it and hopefully catch anything that is potentially damaging before it gets real bad.Some of our clients prefer to pay for the lawn care and we charge a lawn care fee to the tenants.