You might look into some of the real estate crowdfunding sites that allow you to invest only a few hundred dollars into whatever project you like and build up savings in the meantime so that you can take down one of these deals in the future.

I was looking to flip a few properties first in order to build up a little stack of reserves before starting to purchase for rentals.

You could build up quite a portfolio by the time your husband is ready to retire without having put anything down. 

Was it on yellow paper with red ink?

Seller's make claims all the time.... you can build up to 12 units on this land, you can subdivide this into another parcel, rarely are these true if you call the city and do some legwork. 

I start off all my rentals as STR to build up reviews and then covert them to midterm.

There are good resources out there for passive investors if you dig a little, focus on your education and build up cash reserves for the upcoming opportunity. 

I recently purchased 2 vacant lots in KS.

Meanwhile, Paces clients very slowly build up their capital, but we all know the majority will spend it and come right back to the group to let Paces organization fund it so he continues building his wealth from all of these "gators".Do I get annoyed hearing about this every day..YES..Do I think it was a great form of revenue for Pace..YES. 

Here there is a 25 GPG hardness and .2-.8PPM (not sure specifically what my rental has), which leads to buildup and rust, in addition, there has been a history of too high magnesium which caused an advisory from the city itself about potentially unsafe levels of magnesium.