You will need to start with the attorney to make sure you have all the initial paperwork necessary for the transaction.

The initial deal involved the removal of tenants from both the units, but the seller was not able to remove in-spite of several attempts. 

My journey involved (initially) condo LTR's, some of which I paid cash for in Sacramento area ($95,000 and $105,000 etc), then 1031 into duplexes.

I actually understood your model initially. 

After initial acquisition of property its easy at:Excess annual cashflow / initial equity injection So let’s say you guys a property:$100,000 down on a $500,000 property, resulting in a $400,000 loan with the property throwing off $10,000 a year in excess CF after all expenses and mortgage payments.

I ask 3 initial questions: (1) do you meet the minimum income requirement?

If the initial capital outlay is too intensive for you, you could also negotiate and lease with the option to purchase.

Has anyone here had success in financing the initial property purchase and rehab?

To answer your initial question, yes there are opportunities out here but it seems that we have to work and dig a lot more than in the past.

The initial investment with the vacation rental loan was around 20k, plus an additional 10k in revamping/updating.