If you're looking for properties that are 50 units or larger, you'll generally do better focusing on broker relationships. 

Quote from @Deborah Wodell: I bought a hoarder house and decided to renovate it myself.

The much larger group 1 is the people who are naive and due to their lack of knowledge, experience, and possibly limited capacity, get “suckered” by the scammers.The smaller group 2 are those that understand but don’t care if they’re part of an unethical undertaking as long as they make money themselves.  

If its short term lower occupancy go for a smaller machine if it is larger occupancy you want a big machine.

We'll see in a year's time where they're at.Why would you go for a larger DP? 

It is always better to start with a multi-unit 2+ so that if something goes wrong, you still have one tenant to cover necessary expenses (mort, taxes, insur, etc).Also, major renovations are not a great idea for starting out as others said, especially out of state.

You need to do renovations, improve the property, and drive up rents.

He wanted to make renovations, depending on the extent, was told he might lose the grandfathering.

My biggest tip is to save way more that you make and then buy a 2-4 unit building and use a 203k or homestyle renovation loan to do some rehab and add some instant equity.Also, Network as much as possible and get comfortable approach any one and asking lots of questions. 

If it's a larger organization, feel free to inquire about their different staff qualifications.2.