I could even rent to a family of 4 and they could just use a 4th bedroom in the basement instead of calling it a basement suite per se.

@Francis Nasser A CPA can chime in on this one but as far as I know, an interest-free loan isn't illegal per se but it is highly likely to trigger an IRS auditHowever, you could include a certain $ amount as a part of the purchase price and record it on paper as prepaid interest which could potentially circumvent this issue E.g, a seller is carrying $100,000 for a property with a 2% interest on 30 year am and a 5 year balloon (=10%).

The property is not in bad shape per se it’s simply needs some TLC.

Multi family cap rates are always much lower unless they're in the war zone.I think one problem with multi's in SE MI is there just isn't the volume of them available.

If you are S/E ( self employed ) for example you can always ADD back Deprecation/Amortization from your tax returns, in some cases you can ADD back 1 time expenses.  1 time expenses can be; purchased a company car, equipment, did a 1 time upgrade to your office and the list can go on. 

I'm starting to look in NW Indiana and SE Wisconsin.  

In fact, close to pulling the trigger per se.

Keep in mind that not every investor knows everything about every area and I would do my OWN research before heeding advice of one who says oh those are just the worst areas in all of MD, as was Capital Hill years ago....which is still SE DC. 

Unless you show up as a professional, no one will take you se seriously. 

The property is in outer SE Portland.