It is not really investing, just doing a job. 

BUT, they also need to do a good job if they want to stay in business. 

If you don't have time to network for investors/lenders due to the nature of your job, and friends and family are not an option, you are left with saving up and buying properties with your own money, which is totally fine and what most of us do.

Structural (brick) changes/repairs could increase these costs.Knob and Tube Rewiring: Rewiring a house to replace knob and tube wiring is indeed costly, particularly for a complete job.

Specifically, there's job growth (Intel, Honda, Amazon, Nationwide, etc) and the population is growing (unlike Cleveland or Cincy).

In my experience you will be able to get a better deal from a mom and pop landlord with under market rents and if you can get in there and improve the rents and leases and make minor improvements assuming interest rates go down in the coming years the value will go up as the monthly payment goes down increasing the value of the property and then i might trade up into a larger building with the equity from the sale.

Depending on post-foreclosure improvements to the property, it might be too expensive to redeem. 

I am also trying to see if I can find the right attorney to get the job done.

Notice I did not say real estate, as I think the growth in real estate will be outperformed by many of sectors in the next few years - and this is coming from someone whose full time job for 25+ years has been in real estate. 

To give an example, just put a roof on a 1700sf house and it was 29 squares, and they wanted 15.2k for the job.