I would recommend first off handling whatever credit issues or building your credit profile/score. 

@Kristen L Garner  I am curious about the profile of the properties you have seen do well without a pool.

pls check out our Bigger Pockets profile; Ridge Lending Group. 

You'll end up with similar income/expense profile but have all the upside you described in your post.

My profile has more information about the contracting business. 

Here are some tips for networking and making the most of your account. 1) I'd fill out your profile fully before you do anything else!

.- Current tenant's history/profile - Public record information pertaining to complaints, open permits, liens, etc. against the property- Current Zoning of the property and surrounding similar-sized lots- Sales comps- Market stats i.e. average days on market for sales and rentals, vacancy rate- Rental comps including price per square foot (ppsf) reports for recent rentals ..

The typical acquisition profile is a luxury beach vacation rental in the $650-$850k range either with cash or 50%+ down payment from the sale of a property in another state.

I made a few errors, so I had to edit the property profile.

     - Get the Google My Business profile going and link it to your Carrot site    - Then start to build links each month.