She already works, but now will have her regular low wage job, schooling full time, and will be getting a part time job added to her schedule. 

House hack a duplex with a low down payment primary residence loan (think FHA, VA or 5% down conventional).2.

I originally thought this would be a low cost route to documenting the issues and alerting others.

Investors who invest for capital appreciation find it more profitable to invest in these markets due to the low cap rates.There also may be a higher barrier to enter for investors who are not well capitalized.Gino

Also, any tips y'all would give to people who are just starting out, also I am open to other nearby areas where barrier to entry is still relatively low.

For me doing this gives me the flexibility that if something comes up I could use this savings in two ways for emergencies and for my savings goal.I have in the past taken more risk and put the money in low cost index funds within my taxable brokerage account like VOO but there is risk here. 

The problem with multi family is that the inventory is VERY low and not a ton of great locations.

That is the norm for the overwhelming number of investors, and the low-risk approach.

Is that low though.

I recently started looking at LoopNet which seems like a great resource for Low to medium MFH and apartment buildings, have you used it before?