As I spoke to an expert who invests all over the US in sober living, he told me the best way was to find treatment centers nearby the area you want to invest.

Use tools like the VA loan for house hacking and your Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) to cover living costs while building equity.

I've personally done just about every rehab scenario, properties I've lived in, properties bought as investments and even properties bought at auction.You've gotten good advice from folks on this list.

Alternately, if you’re going to do this at volume, and you’ll have to since margins here are thin, I would attend some of the lender conferences.

Or paying off my debt, while I provide them with a nice house to live in instead of an apartment. 

As for the areas to target, my goal in getting our feet wet as real estate investors--and since we plan to be living in Sac--is to find a property we can live in while renting out one or more units to help cover our housing expenses, which we can then hold and continue to rent out when we move.

If you're going to live in it for a bit and fix it up you can adjust accordingly.

I live in California, this is a bay area property.were not looking to move out of state and house hacking is less palatable when a duplex costs 1.6 million.

My Ex-wife currently lives in my fathers home.

Just google the following: - special assessment - zombie condos - Florida condos (look for recent news)Since you are not living near the properties anyways, why not look in a landlord friendly state where the purchase prices are lower?