Given the condition of the house, and knowledge that the current owner was motivated to sell, I was able to purchase the house for around $12,000 market value.How did you finance this deal?

You may want to consider buying each property individually with one or two investors and giving each of them some sort of active role if your intent is to go JV route.

Can someone point me in the right direction and motivate me to get my journey started already.    

We have had several ultra bad laws passed in the last few years (minimum wage laws, gun laws, business regulation of various sorts, etc), but they're limited in scope, and if they don't effect you personally it's easy for the overall situation to be pretty great still.

It's hard to stand out.There are some owner-occupied segments with people who share motivating factors for selling their home.Seniors with Long-time Ownership: often ready to downsize or transition to assistance.Homeowners with Low Financial Stability Scores (FSS): Struggling financially and likely ready to cash in on their asset.Both these categories have additional advantages in that they probably don’t haven’t been updated and may have deferred maintenance.

It's hard to stand out.There are some owner-occupied segments with people who share motivating factors for selling their home.Seniors with Long-time Ownership: often ready to downsize or transition to assistance.Homeowners with Low Financial Stability Scores (FSS): Struggling financially and likely ready to cash in on their asset.Both these categories have additional advantages in that they probably don’t haven’t been updated and may have deferred maintenance.

It's hard to stand out.There are some owner-occupied segments with people who share motivating factors for selling their home.Seniors with Long-time Ownership: often ready to downsize or transition to assistance.Homeowners with Low Financial Stability Scores (FSS): Struggling financially and likely ready to cash in on their asset.Both these categories have additional advantages in that they probably don’t haven’t been updated and may have deferred maintenance.

My question is this:  what sort of profit would you look for on this type of deal? 

I am so motivated, when I read these.

If you can't afford the required down payment and closing costs how are you going to afford any sort of repair, maintenance, vacancy or other unanticipated financial shortfall?