If you want 12% CoC return, 9 is not good enough.  

That gave us a good enough income to move out of that rat pee smelling trailer and into a 3/2 2500 sqft log cabin, (rental) and then a year later, into a 4300 sqft 7br 51/2 ba, 4300 sqft home that looks like something out of loghome living.

I assume you have had a good (or good enough) experience renting to tenants with a lower credit score who otherwise meet your criteria?

If we got a good enough deal to pay cash or we could pay off the mortgage and not carry lender-required flood insurance, we would consider it.  

31/m originally from Massachusetts seeking financial independence through real estate investingI moved to SoCal for a girl from MA, got engaged, and she broke it off because she didn't like my parents and I wasn't good enough for her.

Of course I would do all my due diligence on any decisions made and would like to know if there's anything materially wrong with what I'm suggesting below.I am interested in buying a property that needs to be fixed up but is in good enough condition to rent.

One option you might consider is wholesaling the property if you can work a good enough deal that someone would pick it up. 

Definitely don't have good enough credit to buy on their own, and could have some other things holding them back.

What you probably mean to say is you want to buy a building with owner financing and then you can do a refinance after 2 years or after your credit is good enough.

, avoid heavy leverage (this removes an exit strategy if the market goes down) OR do not plan to sell (long enough to wait out a dip), ensure your rent rates are good enough that if they dip you can still cover your payments / expenses, get great managers or manage well to ensure solid tenants, and have enough money in reserve to operate in a bad scenario.There are a million ways to do everything in real estate.