@Tacuma Bradley - Well, in general it's more difficult to rent out older places here, so there is such a constant flow of new property on the market. 

They shouldn't have a problem insuring a clean marketable title.  

The 10% down second home loans are much more difficult to get now.You will likely need a 20% down investment property loan.Yes you can do a cost seg study for this property.I'd be more wary about finding a property that can cash flow and be allowed as a STR than tax breaks.

Cash flow is one way RE makes money.

My goal is to break even or have a slightly positive cash flow. 

The property cash flows "as is" and has a strong upside.

he meant for instant cash flow. 

In all, we were able to do a cash-out refinance after 1 year and got our entire investment, including down payment, back into our personal accounts and we still have a cash flowing property.The beauty of smaller town and communities is that often big-time investors are not looking at them as closely and they can cash flow quite well, at the sacrifice of "natural" appreciation.

You are able to have access to it and buy it with relative ease and in fact, you can use this as a point of leverage and negotiation with your Seller in echoing to them that the bldg. currently does not cash-flow that well for you and you have to renovate - although your Seller may already be aware that rents are below market and has already priced it accordingly... if this is the case, then just buy it without without using 'below market' rents as a negotiation point. 

I have 20k saved and plan to use an FHA 203K loan and house hack to net zero/cash flow minimally on my first investment.