I hit up a local wine distributor and pickup wine boxes (wooden ones) they give away to anyone who wants them.

That is a great place to start, as well as hitting some local real estate investor meetups so you can meet some other house hackers in person who have done what you want to do.

The property management has been hit or miss.

I'm not trying to make this venture complicated or even hit home runs on every deal.

Yes there are some crazy places that bring the hits but most are not Polly Pockets houses or live in potatoes.

Plus gators ae bragging about getting 200% plus returns.  200% on a 5k loan is still small dollars.. we all hit those occasionally I just hit one that was 645% but it was not gator lending its was big boy buy hold and sell .. just happened to go from original investment to sale in 18 days.. so thats how you Juice your returns short term . but if its a 5k em or a 2k em who cares its still small dollars and unless you have 10 to 20 of those going at all times your still just putzing around. 

It sounds like there's no consistent place to go to given daily rate changes, quotas to hit etc?

This deal came through a direct seller lead, which we negotiated quickly and efficiently.

Given how the housing authority does their rent price determination on individual units, and government ran programs are never beacons of efficient processes, it can go either way.Note, the examples I speak of only relate to C-Class and below areas.

The Cleveland market would allow you to hit those numbers easily.