My wife and I were in FedEx Office taking care of some Real Estate business when a customer noticed my "This Guy Buys Houses" Hoodie and asked if I did renovations. After a brief conversation, I discovered that she wa...

My advice would be to go for the house hack option, here's why:1) You can never count on market appreciation and in a world of historically low financing rates I would suggest that asset prices are sensitive to a downturn2) You can much more reliably force appreciation by by improving an asset3) If you focus on assets that need improving you are much more likely to get a below market deal where you will have instant equity at closing4) You can get much better financing terms for a property that you buy personally rather than an investment5) You will ultimately be a better investor if you have some hands on experience6) You will get better returns on the house hack because you can avoid paying property management feesetc.Good luck!

Every market will have investors who are willing to pay less than the market cap and investors who will only buy if it's higher than market, but the average investor in that market is going to pay that cap rate.Large national brokerages track sales and cap rates from those sales and can be a good source for generally reliable market rates, but the reality is that there is no one source with the exact (agreed upon) cap rate.It's very similar to residential in that it's not an exact science.

If the loan has been transferred over to a foreclosure mill, it's even more difficult.

@Quentin Mitchell dedication , motivation , good morals , reliable , responsible, professional , passionate and accountable .

I'm eager too learn this side of the industry and think I can apply what I'm learning in my day job too being a reliable PM.

How do most people hire or find reliable contractors?

One cannot simply transfer from a trust account.  

Basically the single member LLC transferred 100% ownership interest from my dad to me.

If you hold paper, that would occur at the closing where the deed is transferred to the buyer (and the private money, if a lien, is paid off)... so a default would require foreclosure.