That is the traditional way to handle it.

The idea is to convert a multi-family building into condos; but not in the traditional sense where you separate pre-existing apartments into their own condos; but in a way where you combine the common areas of all of the apartments in that whole building, and turn the individual rooms within those apartments into condos themselves; thus transforming the hallways, kitchens, bathrooms, living rooms, dining rooms, porches, balconies into common areas of the condos. 

Aloha Joshua,  I deal with clouded/messy titles often and it's not my first choice as its froth with a lot of time, costs and risks. 

If not for you and you prefer the traditional route, I would explore potential "up and coming" markets such as Acworth, Cartersville, and Douglasville, where the price-to-rent ratio is a little more favorable, and growth is apparent.

I really want to start my investment journey but I'm not sure if an out of state property would be a good choice while renting in NYC or if we don't move, to move to a cheap market, live in the property for a bit and then rent it out.

I've done a lot of wraps and subtos and highly prefer the seller-finance strategy for a lot of reasons, including offering the opportunity of homeownership to those otherwise rejected by traditional banks.

What would be my best approach, I assume find a private lender and work out some deal with them.All questions and answers will help thank you. private lender would be one option - also can you get traditional financing from a bank? 

It’s great for tracking payoffs and managing commissions or fees automatically while giving you a clear picture of your cash flow.For mortgage lenders, Lendesk is a solid choice.

If it's in the restricted zone (within 31 miles of the coast or 62 miles from an international border, you have the choice between using a bank trust and paying the fees mentioned above or using a Mexican corporation and bearing the costs of establishing and maintaining  the corporation.

As a side note typically I do not use my deferred tax dollars to invest in traditional real estate as the benefits (depreciation etc) are all lost when using a self directed IRA - My guess is build to rent will provide little to no cash flow to build the account - it will all be locked in the property.