I had three contractors say they could do the rehab on it for 8500.00 which was great. the house only needed new carpet in the bedrooms and I was going to put laminate down in the living room and dining room. paint the interior of the house, new kitchen window, new vinyl kitchen floor put down, replace 3 4 foot pipes that they stole which was a blessing because they could have taken a lot more but they didn't. also mud spackle and replace the sheet rock in one of the bed rooms. all three contractors said they could do it for he same price and I found a house that didn't need much work.

@David Wiser Yes I do own my home right now, have about $100K in equity (purchased with FHA 3.5%, based on comps it's appreciated nicely), we are planning on selling and moving to Oregon in the next year, and have been toying around with the idea of going down the multi-family owner occupied route... both my wife and myself do have some reservations about that with having a small child and hopefully another one in the next couple of years. 

Not sure of CT's lead laws, but by federal EPA laws, unless she has a child under 7 living there you won't have to remediate the lead (if it exists).

I had a situation where I did over and above my job, I kept everything clean making sure if I ever needed any time for a personal situation being my child was sick and had to pick her up I always made up the time over and above the time I used to get her to care to get back to work, I clocked in later than so arrived I clocked in earlier than so left everyday, I always gave more time, I took less lunch time than everybody else, I appeared blameless in every situation, I had a witness everytime if I had to deal with any money, then like a previous post in here, one day my boss grew fangs when I made a mistake that was completely fixable and abused me verbally put of the blue and so resigned and worked out my final weeks with my head up coz I knew and so did all the other staff that I was blameless and I learnt a valuable lesson to keep your relationship professional no matter how everyone else functions in the workplace, the fact in this situation was my boss was jealous that I got results out of the staff, which is silly coz that was my job, to manage them effectively that they would produce!...

I think the junk truck and the ideas to get a foot in the door from @Bryan Otteson are great ideas.It will take a while to get a handle on the debt and credit problems.  

The biggest one for me is "foot on the ground".

I think this is a b/c neighborhood where most places rent for roughly $1 a square foot. 

Were it not for these people (in all walks of life - not just real estate), we would all be on equal footing and have no such opportunities.  

I realized that would be way to small for us. .and went to at least a 28 foot camper.. but than after 3 days of rain..

Ok so I am new to REI but have had a couple things close..all with the help of a JV partner who is a broker/investor them self..I have a website which I advertise my business on craigslist and other places which got me 1 that we wholesaled..and found a vacant property we tracked down the owners daughter to and that one wholesaled and then had a person who sells me leads sell us a probate one and that got wholesaled...my partner does all the work as in paper and title/contract/closing ..all of it..im basically bringing the deals and doin the foot work and im a ghost on contract..we split 50/50 ..the money has been great but im to a point where its not enough for me to make my own moves..so rather than waiting for people to call me im looking for REOs and foreclosures and looking for ones that have big equity gaps and when i find one i want to get it then either wholesale or rehab it and do this a few times taking little chunks of money and saving it until i get a goal of 50k...my problem is the money part..i can use my partners private money who is asking 12%annual interest and the money wants 50% of profits ..which would leave the other 50% for me and my partner to split and id probably stay being a ghost and being quiet OR do I just go get my own hard money loan and break away from him and start taking all the risk...no risk no reward i get it but if i continue to do it the way i been doing it then i'll be little more on easy street until my goal is met.  1 down side is time..i think my partner is treats me more like a option rather than a priority which I understand but I dont get questions and things done as fast as i think they should get handled. what do you guys think?