We needed a family home and wanted to find a fixer upper to gain equity.

You'd need to wait months or years to pull out a good gain unless you do a stellar rehab.Any method of investing carries risk.

My goal is to find a -plex or handful of -plexes in my hometown in order to gain experience and just learn the ropes, and ultimately scale into the Springfield or maybe KC markets and beyond.

I love it too and I never thought about the screening aspect, however it's my assumption that most gainfully employed biz professionals will be good tenants (more or less). 

If so when you SELL the home you can deduct up to $250K each (husband and wife) from the gain of the home and NOT pay any taxes. 

Guidance memos from the executive branch, carry the full weight of law.....but these are harder for people to locate because they simply dont know that they exist, nor that these are as much law as what the legislature writes in a bill.  

Know your income & expenses (including hidden stuff like township fees).Note how much rehab it needs to gain the rents it deserves.Do some research with your Realtor and lender, to see what it will refi for after its occupied. it's generally 70% of ARV.

BD Lending is based in Chicago, I believe, but we do everything over the phone and email.I don't work for them or stand to gain anything by making this recommendation - they just came through for me where no other lenders did.

You gain acquisition experience, property management experience and possibly even some project management experience.

I have been investing for close to 40 years - hard to believe and I am going tonite - love to gain new insights and methodologies.