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. 

I have an example under my BPP profile of one we did a few months ago. 

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

It's too bad you don't have a pic on your profile because this is all I can picture as you rant: 

Establish a credit profile, credit score, and opportunity to apply for advanced credit/ OPM "other peoples’ money" to leverage for even more deals"So, really, you're paying $1K more to going Pace's Training because it already includes Prime's Corporate Credit Coaching.

I agree that it would certainly would be a huge improvement to get the facts before pontificating uninformed ignorant opinions.

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.

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.

Repairing/improving to sell.

That will likely be one of the side effects of improving your property and should be accounted for in your analysis.