I bet you'd fix that sink in a heartbeat.With younger folks (and us not-so-young Realtors), internet is as critical as electricity. 

Strangers on the internet, including BP, might be helpful, but your best bet is going to be folks you can meet face to face and show the deal.

In addition, at the end of the day, I’d still be at square #1 of my real estate career journey with fewer relationships if any.

Since you're in San Jose, I'm willing to bet that your original cost is the lower of the two.Use your tax assessor bill to determine the percentage that is considered land (non-depreciating) and the percentage that is considered depreciating rental property. 

With the little research I’ve done, I’m betting I can get $500/month in rent for a simple unit, like I’m considering.

Best of luck to you and keep all of us posted on your journey! 

My wife, Nyree and I are just getting started on our investment journey.

foam board is your best bet.

I'd be willing to bet a couple beers you have been misinformed.

It's going to be very tough to finance this with $0 down through a conventional or commercial lender.Your best bet is to find private money to put up the $470k for acquisition + rehab and then refinance once the property is fully stabilized and pay off your private money lender.If you get rents to $8k you'll be around $48k NOI so at a 7% CAP the property would be worth $685k.At a 70% LTV refinance you'll pull $480k out to pay off your lender/closing costs and have $0 into the deal.This is obviously assuming the seller is carrying anything above the $400k as you had alluded to.Also I don't know the going CAP in your market so this is all just a hypothetical BRRRR example.