They are on the same path as before the 2008 crash and, in many places, prices are again completely disconnected from rents.

What would be my best path going forward in the short term to obtain funding?

Starting small and scaling up is a tried-and-true path, and this community is filled with people who’ve walked that road and are eager to share their experiences.Feel free to ask questions, share your wins (and challenges), and tap into the collective knowledge here.

My straight forward thinking is, when water is turned on (slowly) I’ll pressurize all plumbing then open and clear out faucets, etc.

I’d love to eventually have a portfolio of rental properties, so just trying to figure out the best path forward.

Build a Portfolio Powerhouse: Leverage lets you acquire multiple properties, accelerating your path to generational wealth.

Do you want to be in dense developed urban (such as Minneapolis), or surrounding urban (Bloomington, Richfield, Edina etc.) suburbs (Maple Grove / Plymouth) or semi-rural "path of progress" (Otsego, Monticello). 

It  depends on the scale of your portfolio but if you have a couple properties and they’re all straightforward, I think google drive is fine. 

Negotiating with the seller was straightforward, leveraging the property's condition to secure a $50,000 purchase price.

For my first house hack, it was actually pretty straight forward.