Minimal repairs, etc.

Stay healthy, stay away from bad people.Some ideas to find the deals:walk/drive neighborhoods, look for neglected propertiesadvertise, newspapers, radio, pass out flyersWrite a nice letter to landlordsWhen housing court starts up again, meet landlords there - chatCall and visit owners of Expired Listings - make offersBuild a relationship with a few Realtors, offer to pay them a fee (3-5% of purchase price for unlisted buildings) for presenting your offers to FSBO's and expired listings (auto pilot investing) The purpose behind this is to open negotiations with sellers, I always offer well below their asking price BUT IN WRITING hand delivered by an agent (you save time, cost of gas and you increase the odds of finding a fat equity deal)Study Real Estate Control techniques; delayed settlement, assignment clauses, all types of options, hybrid or JV with sellers, repair consideration with possession (known as front porch offers) use one of the 21 proposals for seller financing (the best highest leverage financing you can get)My LOCK-DOWN has proven to be profitable, I have time to network and develop clients nationwide to mentor/partner transactions.

I wonder if it just makes more sense to find good buy/hold cashflow multi-unit properties.Does anyone out there have any advice to maximize the use of my capital/passion, while minimizing the use of my time/energy? 

Minimizing risk from day one is huge.

Here are a two real situations that I'm having trouble determining:1. paying off short-term hard money when commercial financing was delayed  -- this seems permissible since it's not long term debt2. performing improvements on rental properties -- these were planned but delayed due to COVID-19 has put these on hold.Any tax pros or attorneys here than can better assist to what is and is not permitted use for our EIDL loan?

Overall I think you want to minimize risks/rewards.   

We permanently lost a few tenants from the incident and waited nearly 3 months for the insurance company to agree on repairs and the materials that could be used to replace things thus delaying getting the units lease and show ready. 

The next step is we would have a conversation with current tenant reviewing the agreement for there move out _____ date, all that's involved with that, how we were going to start marketing, showing and leasing the unit, so "IF" they "change their mind" about the move out it's VERY important to immediately contact us because if they delay it could cause someone else to be homeless for a time, and their rent going forward would be _____ "as we already agreed to in the current lease". 

Most 401k custodian companies allow up to 50% loan of the balance with very minimal fees.

Minimal CapEx requirements up front, and a little Loss to Lease in the first few years with some units’ rents being below market.