Im 30, my mom lives with me because she is divorced and depends on me - its a cultural difference, we are immigrants from Russia that came here with almost nothing and have struggled financially since we got here.

All the mom and pop people just get a lot build two attached homes, live in one for a year and then sell them both, then go do it again. 

The mom and pop landlord that I rented from (by my calculation and internet research) owned about 50 doors and had for a long time.

For example, there's a 1950 duplex for sale (West Palm Beach, FL) for $500k with each tenant (MoM) paying $1,500 = $3k/moThe mortgage is $2.8k/moWould this be a bad investment because you would have to factor improvements and possible vacancy?

I've lived in Euless and my mom used to live in Bedford. 

The current tenant is my 80yro mom.

I'll add another piece: with interest rates on the downswing, bank on refinancing and higher cashflow in the near future.This may well not be what a "more successful syndicator" would do, but it wasn't a more successful syndicator who asked the question, just an ordinary mom and pop investor who's looking to expand on what she's got.

In the course of talking with them, the son mentioned separately to both me and my fiancé that he lived with his mom, had done so for a while, and was planning to take the smaller bedroom.

After I found some success I convinced my Mom to buy a bank owned property.

I doubt any basic Mom and Pop flippers are getting discounts on materials.