What's even worse are the ones that have some money to blindly invest and are lucky enough to be in a sustained bull market, using as much leverage as they can manage to acquire, and then lose everything when the market turns bearish, which it always does. 

On the other hand it made we work really hard in order to make a deal work to acquire it. 

Account Closed,"Pre-foreclosure" covers a lot of ground.Some will need to be acquired thru short sale due to negative equity.Some will be probates where the family just doesn't want to deal with it.Some will be true financial hardships - illness, loss of income, etc.So, yeah - you'll need to "fill your quiver" with a lot of knowledge and skills and use what the deal requires.

Wholesalers tend to work in multiple states allowing you to diversify and expand into unrelated markets (spread risk), offer more properties and give creative financial solutions that a single operator may not offer.Outside of that, you also have strategies to acquire the properties.

Cash Pros: no mortgage, ability to take it all out in refinance, can leverage (finance) House 2 b/c House 1 is all cashCash cons: the cash is temporarily (or permanently) gone, not leveraging the most out of your dollar, if the property doesn't refinance where you think it should - you can't get all your cash backLoan Pro: potential to maximize your leveraging ability, tax incentives, experience in going through the loan processLoan Cons: holding costs/mortgage payment, acquire debt, interest rates rising make it tough to refinance (for the time being)-----Depending on the amount of capital you have, I might recommend the BRRRR strategy.

There is a lot of information on the new apartment developments and the general consensus is that there may be an inevitable saturation point now or in the near future, at least in the university area but perhaps city-wide:New and planned apartment construction puts pressure on older unitsBaton Rouge multifamily market becoming overbuiltBaton Rouge student housing boom not expected to lastIn this type of environment which is probably common in many college areas and even non-college areas, with a large number of available units and the potential of acquiring a less flashy property, is there much of a future in investing in that type of smaller multi-family property?

I am an agent but I am trying to find a creative way to acquire this property as an investment for myself rather than list it. 

Now they are looking to acquire a private loan for what ever money they need.

I am currently working with a lawyer to acquire another three properties 14 hours away (drive).I use property managers.I trust the property managers and delegate complete management to them because given my personality, I know I will end up trying to micro-manage things and getting stressed out about what I see when I drive by the properties.

Here is Fannie:Permissible Exceptions to Continuity of ObligationAlthough the following refinance transactions do not meet the definition of continuity of obligation, the new refinance transaction will be eligible and not bound by the limited eligibility parameters described below if any of the following are applicable: The borrower on the new refinance transaction was added to title 24 months or more prior to the disbursement date of the new refinance transaction.The lender documents that the borrower acquired the property through an inheritance or was legally awarded the property (for example, divorce, separation, or dissolution of a domestic partnership).