@Ryan Chandrapaul You said this is your investment property and you need to stay in propertt for 1 year.

Generally i try and stay away from contracts and deal with straight purchases but given the condition of the house i do not have sufficient funding to buy the house outright.

I'm trying to stay ahead of the process by looking for a reputable and trusted home inspector now.

@Mike DornemanI agree with @Brian Garrett, and if the existing tenants don't like the new leases, they don't have to sign it or stay! 

And allow yourself to stay within the price range of property that maximizes your noi2.

and we aren't afraid of a property needing some cosmetic TLC -Duplex, triplex, or quad that we can house-hack; 300k max budgetSingle-family home (3 bedrooms max); would like to stay around 150k if we go this route.

You will be trying to break into the market and may be too late while those that stayed in from a knowledge perspective have an edge over you.

The way that I look at it is.. you are going to find many people who are emotionally attached to their home and will want to try to save it and attempt a modification to stay in their home.

Here's some safe advice, Stay Local and join your REIAs and Meetup groups.........much, much, less expensive training(compared to Gurus) with much better content.Sorry for the long post but needed to comment on my disastrous experience.

My initial attempts have been to create a FB business page, and add as much content as I can, in hopes of staying in front of my contacts.