This is where your costs will come into play.  

Frankly, even local: the last 3 properties I bought were all in close to move-in-ready condition, because currently, I can't get enough discount on a property in a desirable area to pay for the necessary repairs and upgrades.The radical solution: move to Cincinnati, even the playing field and become a local investor.

I was just sitting down bored and playing with my BP profile. 

They need to tell people this is a full time job and create a truly "plug and play" system like they claim that only requires a few hours of work per week.

So if a landlord who is taking all the risk wants to eliminate some of the risk by not renting to people who have already shown that they cannot play by societies rules, so be it.

It was very much like pay to play. 

Since i play on living here for about 5-10 years i wanted to start investing.

Hey @Henry Lazerow - I would tend to agree that most of the NW side of Chicago 2-4 units don't play out perfectly well for BRRRR deals.I always looked at any potential house hack vs. having to rent - if my overall payments were less than the rent I generally considered that a win.For me...the house hack is just the ticket into the amusement park and then the fun rides come after...getting started can be overwhelming and hard so I can see why people might take a discount.I think one of the keys to strong equity creation is square footage creation which is basically what you outlined with duplexing up or down.

Later on, these questions will play a role and it's not that they are unimportant now, they are just in the wrong order.

Track down the new owner of the debt to complete the short sale and wake a sleeping creditor who doesn't need to play ball; or ignore it somehow (bad title company) and the new parties in interest get foreclosed from first lien position by somebody just waiting for the opportunity to squeeze everyone.