Every landlord has a story like this -- my personal favorite variations are when the property was last used as a drug house and/or bordello.

Definitely shop around - the variation in cost premiums is wide. 

Huge variation in submarkets (from $60K average SFH to $400K average - so nearly every investment play is availableTop Challenges1.

its as simple concept as this  " BE THE BANK"  then of course there are variations of real estate debt.1. 

The one thing I see routinely across "young" investors is they don't have a concrete plan founded on fundamental concepts...there are 1,000 ways to make money in this industry...and a variation of each of those.One piece of advice would be to learn OKR's...build this into the framework of your business...there is a learning curve, but you guys will pick up fast.Best of luck! 

Guy would call into the office every single month complaining about the slightest variation of his portfolio.

My process is pretty close to your second variation.

Problem was they had Liens against them in there name and if they paid me off they could not sell the property as it would not have clear titleI say that because that may also be the case or some variation thereof

A variation is to 1031 one of the properties into a really nice investment property that will become your primary later. 

@Roemeo Barnette, I’ve been through variations of this same scenario with several clients over the past decade or so and the other posters here are spot on.