We hope that with help of this forum and community, we will minimize our losses and maximize our gains.Our plan is to payoff our home and begin investing at the same time.

More content and education and less sales pitches for a Guru Program.

We wanted to pick a lower cost area for our first deal to learn the business and minimize potential risk. 

Assuming you, the investor, must rely on outside money to make this happen, and you, the investor and owner/ occupier would be the property manager of the property, how would you approach sellers and/or private money investors to pitch this deal?

You will pay a fee at closing but it is minimal.

The 200k are sitting on my bank account, are there any options for me to minimize my tax bill?

But I'm looking for a low risk deal to minimize financial damage. 

I went through this great building that needs minimal work (sub $10k)...only issue is when you drive up to the front of the building the street is filled with people just "hanging around".

But work on and practice your pitch and value proposition.

Your cost is usually minimal assuming you represent yourself.