The closest I've come to one is a friend's brother who would get properties under contract, including "and/or its assigns", for $100 EM. $5,000?

Much depends on the type of Federal aid that is made available.Having lived in Houston 35 years, I am aware of some interesting facts.  

We rented out a room in our house to aid in a debt snowball and it was a great experience.

But that's just a good idea overall.When setting up you overall structure, you have to decide, hopefully with the aid of competent counsel, the proper organization and entity or entities that will provide the maximum benefit to you.

No I don’t think Joe should use public aid or welfare programs.

You will find that the majority of landlords do not spend the money to make the property desirable and they put band-aid fixes on problems.  

Pittsburgh is the closest one to me which is 3 hours away.

I have considered bird dogging but the closest companies to me are 1-2 hours away.

Now make a list of where your closest friends and family live.

Talking to someone who is a professional in the business can be a major aid to a new investor before they get themselves too far along in their property search and I think for a new flipper an HML represents that better than the other professionals they'll encounter along the way (i.e. realtor, attorney etc).