As the primary market is priced high, when these primary markets expend, they will come to the 2nd/3rdary markets-avoid 1 industry towns.

Any strategies I can utilize in order to expend my operation? 

Im sure it will expend the more different areas i get into as well.  

@Hira Y. let's say you file this complaint and they have to expend time & money defending themselves and they are found innocent.If I were them, I'd charge you for their time and money spent in defense of a false accusation.Where is that money going to come from?

Would love to connect with others who started without a large savings/expendable income but had the motivation and commitment! 

We do not like the low income to moderate income areas regardless of cap rate as they tend to have less expendable income in an economic downturn and are hit hardest the most.   

@Evan Ventura,People here on BP have also successfully used the cheap IKEA countertops (around $75-99 for a piece). at that price they where treated as expendables (one per tenant), and some even reported getting the install time with demo at 2-4 hours.for the other, you need to "waterproof" the common points of water entry:-caulk between the wall and countertop-use varnish on points contacting sink-use good glue near the oven/range since the usual pressure-activated glue does not fare well with heat

I'll include @Alex Corrion and perhaps we can expend the local network.Thanks!

Which leads to a second matter, while you may be able to improve revenues or lower operating costs sufficiently to meet your metric of $100/mth free cash flow per unit, you should not pay the Vendor for the effort you will expend to realize that potential.  

If we stopped making the payments, we would lose all funds that we expended in renovating and remodeling the property along with any equity that we added to the property.Second It is also in our best interest to fix up the property and either resell, or refinance as soon as possible.