Majority of Americans do not have the STEM education, skills, prime age to get high paying jobs but alone with the stellar savings for downpayment. 

Unfortunately, when I was 54 I had some medical problems and have not walked or worked for almost a 8 years. 

It seems reasonable to me for someone to start under the wings of an investor and trade time for developing some skills to build on. 

Or, perhaps you could start a consulting company with whatever skills you have expertise in.

A fire extinguisher is under 20 bucks, I might bring that as an offering to the table, but I wouldn't let them paint - painting cabinets requires some skill and patience - what if they do it very badly you may end up spending a lot of time reversing the job, or buying new hardware....worst case new cabinets. or they've spilled paint on the floors too...

Numbers work well for building a duplex on a site within 10 minute walk of a medical/dental school and 5 minute walk to two other private colleges.

You shouldn't be using Cost/Sqft as an evaluation tool in the first place.MLS data is KNOWN to be inaccurate; the selling agent enters it all as 'best he/she can from the information available".Sincerely hope you have better evaluation skills than that shown here.

And once you master these skills (like I did), guess what.

I wish to be realistic, and show with a limited amount of skill (no I have never re plumbed an entire house before nor have I been shown how to), limited resources (almost no money), your time, and that hard work you can change your life. 

@Derrick Atkinson, YouTube is the great equalizer when it comes to skill deficits.