Emotionally undesirable solution is to sell of the current home (killing off PITI & PMI) which will have positive impact on the DTI. 

These always fail because the homes are in such undesirable areas... we can't even rent them.My recommendation would be to check out the United Northwest district on the near west side of Indianapolis.

The properties available were all located near downtown but in undesirable areas and expensive. 

Problem with that rule is that the property maybe so undesirable (for many reasons, not just aesthetic) that you couldn't give the property away even if  you yourself inherited it.

Acquiring the railroads are also great for cash flow, but usually not necessary to win the game.In other words, buying the lower end properties (as long as they are not so undesirable like Mediterranean and Baltic Avenues that no one wants to live there) will give you knowledge and experience in managing properties and they can start creating cash flow for you right away.  

Sacramento has many pockets - you can have a great area with a really bad street that you probably want to avoid at night, and at the same time you can have what looks like an undesirable area with an awesome street and great residents.  

@Jeff BrowerVacancy for Denver should not be 10%, this is a crazy tight market unless you are in an undesireable area. 

Some of the pockets are undesirable based on our standards but you get a high cap rate.

I will probably also end- up targeting 'undesirables,' either way.

Anything that IS in the range I'm looking at is either an apartment or in a relatively undesirable area.