Can be side hustles, education, applying at other places but income is a huge factor in order to invest.

You have to factor in the increase in the cost of your money.

Then once the rehab is complete and rented I would refi into a DSCR loan where your DTI is not factored in.

They visited Waco on the Magnolia tour idea and saw the houses, saw the prices and wished they could have moved there and just commuted maybe 1 or 2x a month for the office meeting.   90min drive every day would have been killer, but a couple of times a month they thought wasn't bad.

But if you are driving for dollars and looking for a home for yourself, you want to use this strategy:Write a personal letter to the homeowner and explain exactly what you are looking to do and why you are sending them the letter.

To that end, I made a Google sheets document with every hospital system in GA along with the following data:CityZip CodeRentometer 2/X   (what a 2 BR, any bath) goes for on Rentometer)RentRentometer 3/1+ Rent (what a # BR, 1.5+ bath) goes for on Rentometer)"Minutes to home"  (how far a drive it is for us)"Staffed Beds"  (measure of how big a hospital is)"Total Discharges" (a different measure of hospital size)"Patient Days"  (yet another different measure of hospital size)"Gross Patient Revenue ($000)" (you guessed it, hospital size)Map Searches & Housing Requests (this and everything below was from FF.com stats page)Furnishedfinder.com Page ViewsTotal RoomsPrivate Rooms % UnitsHotels% Whole Place > 2500 %Whole Place > 2k < 2.5k %Whole Place > 1.5k < 2k %Room > 1500 %Room > 1k < 1.5k Page view per roomThis allowed us to narrow our search to hospital systems near us (less than 2 hours) in a less competitive market (higher page views per room advertised on FF.com) with a significant % of units being rented on FF.com at higher rents (more $). 

However, most lenders have no desire to deal with that which is why they work with experienced and proven investors they are confident will drive the project to its finish. 

The other strategies will take more time and effort, which need to be factored into the cash flow difference.

Here are a few tips that might help as you get started:Market Analysis: Since you're open to out-of-state investing, look for markets with steady population growth, job diversity, and a balance between rent prices and local wages—those factors often hint at stability and demand.

Quote from @Jonathan Greene: I like DealMachine because they have skiptracing including in Pro now, but I still think of it more for neighborhood canvassing and mailing (aka driving for dollars) than multifamily acquisition opportunities.