I've seen a lot of new investors do just a little marketing and throw their hands up and exclaim, "THIS DOESN'T WORK! Why would anyone want to sell their house at such a big discount?" There are hundreds of reasons, ...

(Put that into three categories of actually cash flowing, living for free, and living for cheap(er).)Don't forget to factor in expenses and vacancy.Is there any value-add opportunity?

There are many great teachers/trainers out there that have inexpensive courses.Brian Haskins

You may need to consider looking out of state, if you want to start out with inexpensive rental properties.

Very affordable and he could also do the quit claim inexpensively.  

I expect slight increases in expenses over the years, but this double hit, taxes and insurance up so much in one year, with market rents not growing fast enough to cover is eating into our cash flow.           

There are professionals that will test for mold AND  their are inexpensive moisture testers to insure that your home is dry.

A similar ( albeit nicer) unit was for sale at the same time for $175K on the same street, so I think I have some equity to gain with some inexpensive improvements and good tenants.  

This is a relatively inexpensive process.

"An interesting thing to note is that the units don't have individual utility metering and so the owner has been paying the utility/electric bills for the units to the tune of 15k per year in expense themselves.