That being said, over-improvement is a "thing" and many a new landlord has fallen into the trap of spending money with no ROI from those improvements.

Save up the money, improve your credit score, and buy smart.You can get lower down-payment deals through owner financing but it takes work and patience.By the way, don't make the mistake of spending your last dime to make a deal work.

I will have to look into going to the foreclosure auction, thank you Marcus.depending on area investors kind of shoot for that 1% rule so that would put market value with 950 rent at 95 or so minus repairs.. at least what I have seen in parts of FLA maybe that area landlords will pay more.

You need to incentivize them to mentor you or partner with you, either you work pro bono for them or bring something to the table of value.To your comment about "shady" or dishonest, I would encourage to you be as honest and forthcoming as possible, I don't know about you but I got into real estate because I wanted to do something meaningful, profitable for my family's benefit, I wanted to benefit from my level of effort rather than giving it to someone else, and most of all I wanted to make the world a better place by improving whatever it is I am working on; I want to be able to lay my head on the pillow at night knowing I did everything I could today to move forward in a positive direction and did so with integrity in order to prevent any form of regret. 

Sounds like there might be some things to learn from this experience and potential improvements to your screening process.  

The bigger ones 20+ are relatively few and far between but same kinda rule applies what does sell trades primarily off market.

First of all, it doesn't even meet the 1% rule (rents = 1% of the All-In price).

I'm going to practice analyzing deals based on the 70% rule for flippers.TLDR, my goals.1.

Just over the 1% rule.

I plan to hold the property for 5 years at the very least so I'm not opposed to making up-front investments that will help my return over time and of course improve my numbers to maximize a sale price when I decide to sell it.Any suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated!