Please please account for how many months you can carry the house if it sits vacant/ large capex or if you have to go through an eviction. 

Their children (now in their late 40s) inherited the house, but they have not listed it on the market, and I heard that neither is willing to move into it from their current setup, so the property has been sitting vacant.

You’re unlikely to find discounted properties on the market unless a listing has been sitting for 60+ days and the seller is getting real desperate.

At least you'll probably get most of your money back when the deal gets refinanced or sold.what doe sit mean they were going to sponsor you ?? 

It also seems like a lot of the condos sit on the market for 3 months or more.

Ill have to research how to fix it (i hope its not rip all the drywall off and replace with new). 60 days seems more reasonable since its been sitting there for 40 years.

Solid bones to the property. 

This is something I try to live by and teach my kids if I can - "A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly.

2-4 units typically sit on the same size lots and have the same FAR's meaning the buildable square footage is the same.

Quote from @Ivan Castanon: For the past 6 months I’ve been looking for houses (both SF and MF) that can produce at least a little bit of cashflow with around 20% - 30% down.However, I’ve started to realize that this is pretty much impossible these days.I currently have $110k sitting in my bank ready to be invested but I just can’t find anything that will at least produce a 3% COC return.