I’m not saying it’s impossible, just that your chances of success are very low.

For the 4 plex you are spending an extra 80k in renovations (I question your 110k renovation number to get to 4 units - this could be low but I don't know the square footage or layout).

Price points are low when acquiring real estate but that also comes with lower rental market values for your units so it pretty much evens itself out.With that, if you are going to buy in Reading I advise you strongly consider managing your own properties.

I suspected fraud as the property was too nice and the rent was too low. 

That's why the cash flow is low on that one, because it has a bigger mortgage.For the most part I consider Taylor to be B class.

Slowly build out a repeatable process...if you continue to change things (as in different types of properties, different levels of renovation, different finish material, different neighborhoods, etc.) you create more variables and make it harder to solve to the problem.I am a math guy and less unknowns/variables you have the easier the problem will be to solve. 

However The barrier to entry in the REI teaching business is very low and a lot of bad players join the game.What you describe led me to come up with Ned's Rule of Gurus.The quality of an REI course is inversely proportional to the price

And you're right, with our low default rate and the lower price point on 2nds, buying them back is certainly an expense but not a major one.

- You can find this out by going to Zillow, selecting your Zip code or Neighborhood, and looking at current rental listings.

Don't aim so low.