Cold-calling is all but a dead-art, but the principles remain. 

The lady probably in her late 50's, and the stock market just out of two years bearish.

Almost all of the housing stock is 100+ years old so you're probably never going to see a home that is free of lead paint.

Stocks dipped last week after labor data disappointed.

I've received different advice - on one extreme is sell off all your rentals, take the cash and take the capital gains tax hit and invest in stocks/index funds (not from a RE investor, from people I know who are horrified that I have more than one mortgage), which I won't do.

but maybe it will be like Habitat for Humans  although when you look at their projects houses biult as cheap as code will allow.. so to me I guess if you put them in dead and dying areas to spruce them up that could be an improvementI live in a production home that's far from a ghetto. 

I feel like I'm in a rat race with my W2 job and trying to find deals in real estate and generate other income (stocks are my current choice). 

However, short of my stock portfolio, which I don’t want to touch as it does well too, I don’t have the cash to buy my first deal.

They deliver the unit, service it, keep it stocked, etc. and then you split profits.

If your contract with the buyer has a drop dead date and they do not perform you can move on.You also need get get POF from your buyers and a non refundable deposit.