I discovered my couple of niches by first learning a bit about 3 or 4, so I would have those strategies in my tool belt, then focused on the 2 that made the most sense for my area and were most rewarding to me.  

My goal is to get some experience under my belt, and then try and move up to 100 units a few years down the road.

I am an older dog, and want to get on board with someone where I will learn how to do things right, and get a couple of sales under my belt.

Im just starting out myself with, now have 3 rental properties under my belt (duplex under.

If you can find time to take one night or weekend college class at a time until you have these five under your belt I think you will agree that they will help your long term vision and understanding of investing.

But a Rust Belt or city in the South with 30% of residents living in poverty comes with stuff.  

Just became a losing proprosition all the way around and we couldn't hold on to them.Looking to get started wholesaling ourselves, but it seems like the market is pretty crowded, so struggling to get the first deal under our belts so we can start accumulating some capital to work with.

Our usual targeted payback is 3-5 years for weatherization (We have two programs: 1 that gives us $600 in free air sealing if we buy a blower door test per unit up to 4 units and another that is for OVER 4 units only that gives $1,400 per unit/50% cost of weatherization whichever is less) -- with tenant paid heat (rare in central maine) I still do some weatherization IF it's really needed.

Places like the rust belt or lower east coast or cash cows but you have to learn the good areas from the bad and will have your hands full managing your PM as things can go VERY badly in those types of areas.As for your gathering of cash, keep amassing cash until you can make another DP... whether it's a 4unit or larger is up to you.

It gets easier now that you have some experience under your belt.