So far im just picking random tri and four plexes from zillow and running the numbers on them to see if they cash flow but i feel like this isnt effective.

The only time I have seen short sales WITHOUT an arms length agreement would be reverse mortgages, or very random portfolio loans. 

It's easy for random people on BP to tell you to 'go for it' when all they know is what you posted. 

Thank you so much guys really appreciate all the informationidk i think its difficult to gather all the information from all those sourcesits random and not in one place and there are so much data that it may be confusingi wanted to learn from one place and get the info right 

If you find a place that will cash flow at a 200k budget on long term rents in Houston, I promise you that you do not want to own in that neighborhood AND it probably does not actually cash flow due to the class of tenant, capex, vacancy, and turnover costs.I'd suggest you try to find some connection to a place rather than randomly picking a market.

you will likely still have to come out of pocket on your mortgage payment, which is fine.please do not buy a random property thousands of miles away in a market you don't know anything about because someone on the Internet told you to. 

If they randomly review your credit and don't like something...  

The inputs for the image in this screenshot are as follows:500k purchase price duplex.Rent each side for 2k/month (this is after you move out)5% down paymentClosing costs: 7k6.4% interest rateInsurance: $250/monthUtilities (paid by owner): $400/monthVacancy budgeting: 5% of monthly rentMaintenance budgeting: 8% of monthly rentCapEx budgeting: 7% of monthly rentEven though you are negative $312/month after budgeting for future expenses your net worth ROI is massively positive.

Title companies need to insist everyone use a trusted notary, not just any random remote notary, and take additional steps for any remote closings such as holding funds in escrow after any remote closing until they can 100% verify that they’re not going to be wired to a scammer overseas. 

(If no one can get into the home, which happens on occasion, we use 20% of ARV or sometimes just won’t do the deal.)Using $94.5k for your rehab, here are the expenses we estimate:Click on the image and it will become readable.Notice you’ll break even here.