How do I break into this medium term rental market?

I do think taking a loan may be a happy medium.

And there's a lot more volume in the 3-4 unit space than in other segments (so many more opportunities to close deals and earn money, rather than relying on landing a whale once or twice a year).Furthermore, experience in small multifamily could obviously lead to an opportunity to operate in the medium to large multifamily space, where the analysis is much the same, but the numbers are much bigger. 

@Scott Carder  we hit a happy medium.. get invoice on the 1st pay on the 10th  get invoice on the 7th we pay on the 10th of the next month.. teaches our subs to get the billing in time.Now to be fair we are using bank loans.. so they send an inspector out before we can get our draw so we need our draw request to them by the 2nd to get our draw by the 10th.. so if our subs want to get paid they get us the invoice.. plus they need to sign lien release with check.

Almost all short and medium term lodging will be impacted in a nontrivial way during recessions. 

Some more details belowGoals: Medium term appreciation (10 year horizon) with minimal or some cashflow to keep in case of some emergency repairs etc.Type of property: Single Family or Smaller Multi FamilyType of rental: Long Term but open to Short Term rental too (if the area has companies that can manage the AirBnB.

Theres definitely terrible deals out there but I've personally acquired several small MF properties in San Diego area over the past 2 years and they were on the MLS and I paid retail and competed with multiple offers, you just have to be willing to add value and be a little more creative than just purchasing at face value and hoping it will work...I acquired a 3 unit in La Mesa Village for around $900,000 and the combined rents were less than $3,000/month....I had tenants leave and I fixed up the property cosmetically as well as foundation and sewer and now rents are just above $8,200 and I will start ADU construction hopefully this month to convert a couple of the garages to a 4th unit so rents will be over $10,000/month all long term rentalsI acquired a small 4 unit in Golden hill around $1.3M that was getting around  $6,000/month or less between all 4 units and I turned them all to medium term and get between 12,500-$14,000/month....I have an additional utility payments of around $700-1000/month which I wouldn't have if these were long term units but the long term rents would be lower of course.It is always more difficult to make deals work here, especially average ones and with higher rates its even more difficult and requires creativity and/or some form of value add whether renovating units, turning into medium term, adding ADUs, etc. 

If I say I want a medium grade faucet who knows what I am going to get.If you are going to Home Depot at 6-7 AM no wonder you have problems. 

Condition is key when negotiating.You can always work your way up to an acceptable price before escrow, and negotiate during your inspection period.You can overwhelm them with repair lists, and ask for a reduction of small to medium size and put a marker so you meet and your exceed your target number. 

Ah, the lovely width of a Philly row home...Basement finished with basic tile, recessed lights.