and 2. is $50k your budget or it just sounds like a desirable price?

The trick is that you need to do the math and offer no more than what would make sense with your desired cash flow. 

Is this area considered desired for rent?

You might want to consider J Scott's "flipping formula" for the Maximum Purchase Price (the most you should buy a property for) which is as follows:MPP = Sales price - Fixed Costs - Desired Profits - Rehab Costs, whereSales Price equals the conservative estimate of what I can sell the property for (not necessarily the price I’ll list it for!).

When you've built up enough capital you can take some of the equity from the four unit and use to buy a home wherever you desire.  

It'll provide better separation and space and likely some desirable storage space.  

I know creative financing strategy exists to really serve my growth desire, but I am very interested to know how other people grow their portfolio using more "traditional" financing.

My wife and I live in Laramie as well and have similar desires of getting in to the mulit-unit game.  

It seems to be a desirable path, especially with long-term loan rates being 3-4%, and with the inflation of the dollar it seems like a good idea to take on fixed, manageable debt..Anyway, I have about $15k in cash saved and would like to travel and look up different cities that seem to have a healthy pulse to them, currently looking at Indianapolis as an example.

Can be in less desirable areas such as industrial or warehouse districts.This is a decent example of what I have in mind: http://deepellumss.com/Should I contact owners directly if I see a place I like?