If you accidentally take out too much, no rule says you can't pay a mortgage balance down during a refinance. 

There are legitimate transactional lender already out there just google it, there a few I'd shy away from due to lack of professionalism, but there's a few that are easy to Work with.

It appears the units are below market, however with some cosmetic repairs and perhaps some capex's I feel I could increase the rent by at minimum (based on local comps) 68%.I would offer 85% of list and estimated $20,000 in repairs/upgrades (this is probably a generous estimate - the property appears to be in good shape, basically needs a face lift).With all these figures, including the 50% rule, financing with 20% down @ 3.5%, I come out to a profit of $262 per unit and a cash-on-cash return of 9.53%.So, does this seems reasonable?

Easy: Mislead the seller with bogus clauses such as 1. subject to partner approval (your partner can be your dog)2. subject to 60 day inspection  (they are tied up doing lots of inspections)3. subject to financing (just be sure and don't try and get it)If you use enough weasel clauses you won't lose a dime, will have raised the sellers hopes, taken the property off the market leaving REAL HONEST POTENTIAL BUYERS behind, and started developing a reputation (maybe not a good one).

We also knowingly gave up a critical backup exit strategy due to HOA rules, and then needed them when we were having a hard time selling.

if I go by your numbers 54k purchase price amd 24k for rehab  that's 78k you're going to rent 2 units for 750 so that's $1500 a month.you should calculate the expenses taxes ,insurance,maintenance etc and see if the cash flow will make sense.. you can use the 2% rule which in this case looks like you're right on the money. . so if 54k and 24k are right numbers and this is not a complete war zone were you would get your $1500 every month with no problems than this should be a good deal..check again for the rehab costs with a local contractos ask to have written estimates. also see if you need to pull permits.. these takes time and money. .good luck!!

In addition to the podcast, blogs, and forums, I found the BP books to be super helpful and easy to digest: http://biggerpockets.com/books and there's also a free intro video course that has a lot of the same material as the Book on Rental Property Investing: https://www.biggerpockets.com/courses/a-beginners-introduction-to-real-estate-investing

I went to a really good one but I think that is the exception not the rule. 

But for the average Joe, we aren’t set to inherit tons of money from our family, we tried the stock market but we’ve ended up with average 7-8% returns, maybe some of us have great ideas, but we don’t have the connections and/or the network to adequately fund our business ventures.Raising money to purchase a home is relatively easy for the vast majority of people and in some cases can be shockingly affordable.

If so, that is an easy solution.