Work your way up in quantity that will ultimately allow other people budgeted and paid for Property Management Company running the daily operations and you are responsible to manage the management company without having to come out of your own pocket.I have heard that it takes about 30 units before you can afford a management company as a regular expense that property will pay for. 

Which areas has a pocket of affordability?

Get as many homes as you can afford, then start to pay them down. 

There are opportunities to house hack just outside of the city or in the Bronx, where you can still find affordable (relatively speaking) housing - jsut with a bit of an extra commute.Thanks for the tip on calling banks and credit unions - will do this.

@Marcus Rodger, I see every limited value in a lot fo books, especially about things like gearing and tax as the laws change frequently.In the NZ market the basic precepts are fairly simple.If you can afford to negatively gear safely and you have decide it is a safe enough strategy for you then pick the market with the highest likelihood of capital growth, which is generally, Auckland, Wellington and Hamilton, and start investing.There are markets where you can still buy cash positive in New Zealand but you need strong local knowledge and good boots on the ground to buy well in many of those smaller areas.

Can't afford to.    

What is the best way to find foreclosure, tax lien, and short sale auctions ( full and accurate listings) as I figured it would be more affordable utilizing those listings?

Understand your frustration but also understand that this is not at the top of the polices priorties; patroling an unused treed lot.No useful solution comes to mind.

I tried to hire a lawyer but I could not afford cost of litigation, on top of losing 200k.Scamsters like these give bad name to RE industry and keep people like me away from investing in it.

I would look into more south OC in Lake Forest, Mission Viejo, and Aliso Viejo with pretty amazing schools still but with slightly more affordable rents.