A lot of what you'll see here is older homes in desirable areas and that scarcity keeps price growth high while keeping sales growth low.

This is primarily due to two key factors: low inventory (leading to tight margins) and high interest rates.

Those holiday numbers are a bit low, those daily numbers are a bit high. 

Many of these are low income, government subsidized housing units.

The price is about as low as you can go in Southern California.

Where do you think a rehab is more likely to net the better sweat appreciation the high property value market or the low property value market?  

City-Data and Census.gov are solid resources, and sites like Rentometer can give you a good sense of rental prices.After that, I narrow it down to neighborhoods with strong fundamentals—good schools, low crime, and convenient amenities.

Nicholas makes a great point—having strong ties to a market definitely helps, and picking a random low-cost market without a network can be tough.

When revenue is low in the first couple of year, so is the interest payment.  

Securing funding has been challenging, particularly because my business documents reflect low revenue from only one duplex, and I am currently between jobs.I have identified a reasonably priced piece of land and have saved a small portion of the funds from my duplex sale to invest in this venture.