They’re fully renovated (or in good condition) and often come with tenants already in place, so you can start making rental income right away. 

Since I work pretty hard at my day job and don’t have much renovation experience, I wanted something simple—a rental I could put a tenant in and at least break even.

That home would be a great candidate for a hard money loan that would allow you to quickly complete the renovations and exit. 

You can still achieve it, but finding deals that actually pencil out on all criteria (low enough purchase price, low enough renovation cost, cash flows on the backend, all cash out at refinance) is pretty hard.

You might also meet title agents who have resources on, say, foreclosures or probates…and might recommend lenders who actually lend on more difficult projects (as the title companies also know which lenders can close and which are difficult).I also go visit open houses to see what sorts of finish to put on my renovations or to look for the next house or area in which to purchase.  

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Recommend you first figure out the property Class you want to invest in, THEN figure out the corresponding location to invest in.Property Class will typically dictate the Class of tenant you get, which greatly IMPACTS rental income stability and property maintenance/damage by tenants.If you apply Class A assumptions to a Class B or C purchase, your expectations won’t be met and it may be a financial disaster.If you buy/renovate a property in Class D area to Class A standards, what quality of tenant will you get?

@Zach Howard some copy & paste advice below:)-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Recommend you first figure out the property Class you want to invest in, THEN figure out the corresponding location to invest in.Property Class will typically dictate the Class of tenant you get, which greatly IMPACTS rental income stability and property maintenance/damage by tenants.If you apply Class A assumptions to a Class B or C purchase, your expectations won’t be met and it may be a financial disaster.If you buy/renovate a property in Class D area to Class A standards, what quality of tenant will you get?

I decided to look into an official duplex or triplex putting 150K down that has value add with renovations and potential unit add but it wont have as much equity because it will be an on market deal. 

If you can save money and renovate and the ARV allows you to pull your intial capital out sooner, I say go for it!

@Kris Lou Be careful with agents as 95%+ of them really only know how to handle owner-occupied transactions.We don't do biz in Indianapolis, so this is unbiased info we hope you find useful:Recommend you first figure out the property Class you want to invest in, THEN figure out the corresponding location to invest in.Property Class will typically dictate the Class of tenant you get, which greatly IMPACTS rental income stability and property maintenance/damage by tenants.If you apply Class A assumptions to a Class B or C purchase, your expectations won’t be met and it may be a financial disaster.If you buy/renovate a property in Class D area to Class A standards, what quality of tenant will you get?