When I say lower end it is still a relatively safe and okay area (not big city bad). 

Have the RMLO look at the 1003 app, talk about the Ability to Repay RulesThe RMLO knows Dodd Frank, Safe Act, RESPA, and TILA.5.

My goal is to create wealth in the shortest time possible with safe and profitable investments.

If you purchase the "worst house on the block", it still needs to be (to use HUD verbiage) decent, safe and sanitary to rent.  

Which would be the most effective and financially safe for a rookie investor like myself, with a very limited budget?

Always listen to people speak, don't be so quick to speak, after you have asked what they do for a living, and then they ask you. ( You say) I put together lucrative real estate transactions so that my investment partners can make safe consistent profits. 

Ive had my family contractor look at it and he is sure for 10k he can fix it up and make it safe and rentable and then I can do the cosmetics.

It's better to be safe than sorry.  

In general, anything that changes the principal balance owed affects the DOT and should be recorded.Even when you modify a note, it's sometimes not obvious if the DOT has also been affected, so we almost always record the modification, just to be safe.

Just be safe if you are investing your own money.Feel free to reach out if you need any help In the future.