(Very impacted by COVID on the brink of going under as he works 80 hours a week and barely takes home anything) We rent an apartment for 2,000 a month and have to intentions on buying a house on Long Island since everything is over valued at the moment and it would be just putting us in a pit. 

I am on long island New York.

Personally I just started trying to make money in real estate and learned what I needed to for the situation I was infor every multimillionaire/billionaire who says contacts are most important you will find someone who is a one man Island For every MM/B who says math you will find MM/B who needs a calculator for the simplest of math problems 

@Cody Buckingham my first investment market was Honolulu on the island of Oahu so it is doable and the is real potential for growth.

Networked extensively for many weeks while organizing relocating from Mercer Island, WA.

The laws,  including the recently passed washington 'just cause' rules do allow for giving a tenant notice to vacate if you are going to owner occupy,  or for substantial rehabilitation  (meaning necessary work will make home uninhabitable, and typically also means permits must be pulled for some aspect of the work;   paint and carpets doesn't count)   But keep in mind COVID moratorium rules and still in effect  though  (in theory) they are phasing out.    

I would call your realtor to get a comp analysis as part of your refi process- they may also know of some lenders who work with this kind of situation frequently (especially if you have an investor friendly agent) The property is in John's Island SC

However, the neighborhoods that I'm interested in are more expensive than what I can afford at the moment.I was thinking of buying a cheap uninhabitable foreclosure, doing a complete demolition, and building a brand new *modular* construction. 

There are networking groups in the 5 boroughs and Long Island where like-minded people connect and discuss partnerships and syndication.

I used to work with a nurse who suggested we should ship all the addicts to an island and not come back but we came to the conclusion that unfortunately we would just have new addicts to deal with so isolation isn't really a viable solution.