Probably your best bet is to chat it up with local investors who have been in the area for years and know what makes the market tick.

Welcome Dakota to the ultimate Investor resource on the internet.

Michael, welcome to the best Investor resource on the Internet.

5.She is trying to get $50,000 total to try to fix up the reno project plus pay for the expensive repairs on the other properties.6.She would also like to refinance the other properties which may be under commercial loans but deeds are in trust.One is over 12% and others I believe are over 8%.7.Her personal property has a mortgage for $130,000 and is showing about that value on auditors website + corelogic/Zillow.However, they completed gutted and rehabbed their house many moons ago and turned it from a 3 bedroom 2 bathroom church house into 5/6 bedroom 4.5 bath house.I believe theres plenty of equity to be found here but she’s afraid if she gets an appraisal for HELOC either she will waste money and it will come out to what the internet says or the county will reappraise the house and raise her taxes significantly which she can’t afford right now.8.She has a promissory note from a lawyer my stepdad lent $50,000 to some time ago.The note was due for $83,000 balloon in 2011 but he has only paid $5,000 on it.I don’t know the full details of this but she is supposed to send me a copy.Thanks for any help...this is pretty complicated, especially since I don't have the paperword to really lay down the exact details. 

@Lekisha Cole BP has a couple and if you search the internet you will find some interesting ones.

If you secured another cash flowing property with the equity from the first, you'd be doubling down on that bet while hedging at the same time (cash flow).Either way you win, unless you can find a better return on your investment by selling and re-investing your tax free capital gains elsewhere, OR... the US economy could collapse due to the financial ineptitude/corruption taking place w/in the beltway and it could be an all out Zombie Apocalypse headed your way!

Owner financing is the best bet(and my favorite) but if the owner owns this free and clear you will have to be agressive with a down payment.

His idea of risk was to hit the roulette table and bet black while his wife bet red.

HI Denny,5% down conventional financing is possible for owner occupied conventional 1 unit only the second you even attempt to go 2 unit you're already at 20% down payment so best bet is to buy using FHA 3.5% down on a duplex that is under market and then refinance into conventional afterwards.

So much depends upon your personal circumstances.If you are really close to broke and staying afloat by taking on more and more debt (which it sounds like you are) then probably a job, if you don't already have one, is your best bet for the time being.You have the right motivation.