Work as a mechanic or contractor in the trades ... get creative however you need to (on the income side, not the financing side), but figure out how to get your income up to raise capital and look more appealing to a bank, and as a bonus you will learn a lot that will help you as an investor in the process.

Not always some will sell prehab but those deals usually come with bonus equity to mitigate the lack of revenue at close.there is two schools of thought on this and I have seen this be very successful as well .. but more caution is needed on the company you do this with they need to be very good and reputable of course.Other course of action is to simply buy off the MLS and do the work for yourself.. this is an extreme challenge from afar...

All replies appreciated, with bonus points for really good puns. :-)

So you make it sound more like a bonus to  smooth things over and just offer a hundred bucks as a bonus for the seller to get out and celebrate for the weekend.  

We are from South Florida (Broward).Currently I have 12k cash in a savings account, without about 20k on its way through work bonuses in March.

If not you get a get good cash bonus. 

Plus, small multi unit properties are very hard to keep occupied in the MidWest as an added bonus...All you need to make it worse is if the tenants pay weekly with cash!

The bonus being you reinvest it and it's tax free.

Bonus points if you finance the costs of rehab.Rehab and repair the property to force appreciate it to the market price.Rent the property to start earning an income.Refinance the current loan to the reflect the new appraised value of the property.

An added bonus is the asset liability protection, but I realize a good insurance policy is an adequate substitute for that too.