The scammer may promise to help the victim get out of debt or improve their financial situation, but in reality, they have no intention of helping the victim and are only interested in taking ownership of the asset.Once the victim takes out the loan, the scammer may siphon off the funds or use them for their own purposes, leaving the victim with a large debt and no asset to show for it.

While it's positive after expenses and has potential for improvement in year two, it’s been a bigger hassle than anticipated and taking attention from other priorities and areas of our life with not enough return. 

Basic staging with an agent usually means they give you insight into how you should:Declutter and depersonalize by removing photos and personal itemsArrange your furniture to improve the room’s flow and make it feel biggerAdd plants, move art, or re-arrange other accessoriesFull-service staging is another option if your house needs more hands-on attention.

I would use the income to slowly improve the house and once you get it to a good spot, HELOC out some money for a down payment on another place rinse and repeat. 

You could do the upgrades then rent out the units or sell after you made the improvements.

.- After closing, you can do some of the work yourself to save money, but the program doesn't allow you to pay yourself.You will want to buy a Class B property, maybe Class C+, in an area that seems to be improving.

The cash flow improves quickly, but the cash flow is so negative on retail purchases that it will take years to reach cash neutral.  

The problem is these homes are 60-120 years old and because of the low value neighborhoods, nobody has ever made any capital improvements beyond duct tape.

Repairing/improving to sell.

The problem is that it take far more effort to LIVE that dream that it is to wake up from that Dream.I teach Real Estate Investing on the side and I will tell you 95% of the students are sitting in class dreaming or pretending that they are improving their lives just by attending the class.In the end, they don't really study.I give a Spreadsheet exam at the end of a 12 week / 1 class per week session on building a 10 Year Pro-Forma business plan for your Real Estate and I will tell you 95% fail out right.Being in class is more about dreaming than it is about putting in the effort to learn the skills to be an Investor.