I'll give you my strategy but you're being warned: its extremely hard to find the right people and most banks will say no.

These properties are being sold for cash, "free and clear" (no liens, etc..) for sometimes extremely low prices.

I hope this doesn’t sound to cold but there’s a lot of opportunity.

And the ability to complete of manage rehabs is an extremely rare and valuable skill.I would recommend evaluating whether multi or single family rentals work in your market, then determine which is more affordable compared to what offers the most cash flow.

Also, the housing stock is extremely old, so I anticipate having higher CapEx costs. 

It was a multi-property transaction and was across state lines, and it went extremely smoothly. 

I was there last year to watch Hamilton so he was extremely smart with real estate investments.

College rentals can be extremely powerful, just make sure that you do it right from the start!

I would be extremely cautious about advising them on how to do anything with their money until I had a proven track record of at least one decade's experience that includes a full economic cycle where the market rises, falls and recovers. 

No matter what I feel like I’m losing money, but the market is cold and I doubt I’d have anybody else for February anyway, plus with a nice family is like to have them as tenants.