I recommend researching the average appreciation over the past 10 years in your target area to get a clearer picture.As you know, in real estate, ROI comes from multiple sources: Home Appreciation:  Reno Appreciation: Value added through renovations or improvements (usually just in the first year).

What documents do they require, what credit scores do they allow, how do they verify previous rental history, etc.?

Maybe this could improve cashflow and affordability for us?

You can also send payments to credit card whenever you have spare money.

The other way I fund deals with none of my own money is using a private lender that I have years of experience and relationship with and/or using HELOC and other business lines of credit.

My first ad budget was $295.00 credit I got from my local news paper. 

I would like if you ever need a licensed GC to do renovations/Tenant Improvement projects I have a group for that.  

So far mostly people are telling me I'm probably stuck until their lease is over. meanwhile I also need to pay down my debt and improve credit score. 

But again, your profit after selling costs (and any capex improvements) would have to be in excess of $60ok to really make sense.

However, these properties generally have a lot of land improvements that qualify as well as certain portions of electrical, mechanical and plumbing that can qualify.