@Ned Carey  Ned can correct me.. but I don't think the go look is feasible at all.you get a massive list and you never know exactly which ones are going to be avalaible on auction days.Unless this list Ned is talking about is avalaible inventory... that they are holding until someone buys them.. that would be different. but I suspect that you need to look at 100's of properties to pluck out a few that you would actually like.. so not feasible to pay someone to go do this unless this is your business

They may even charge you to retrieve them from storage if they've already been archived. 

Is it feasible or even smart to use contractors for every step of the rehab on a long term investment property?

If you can get approved for a 20k credit line, then you can feasibly purchase a home at 70k at 20% down, leaving you some money left over for carrying costs. 

I work 60+ hours a week and have always contracted out the work.Rehabbing houses takes work and if that is not feasible or desirable, that is totally understandable.  

As I type this I'm thinking we should go into multi-family as my goal is to cashflow $3,500 - $5,000 per month (and I have no clue if that's even realistic, feasible or doable for us as first-timers).  

That might be feasible as Ill be going back and forth from school.

That unit would be 'storage' until sometime down the road (after bank financing), when the owner wanted to finish out the kitchens, bath, etc... and get more rent.My thought, is that if the plex needs a lot of work, there might be one kitchen that needs to be ripped out, at which point you can call the unit storage.  

I heard that renting containers for inventory and storage is a viable business.

I'm in LA so the prices (and returns) are similar to NY, so not feasible from the passive cash flow perspective.