And when it comes to multifamily i would not count on appreciation for the bail out; you want to be setup so it can comfortable sustain itself, rain, or shine.:)I was looking at a duplex for sale in Baltimore online. 40K purchase, 10K work (they said 5k) and $750X2 in rent.

I know Capterra has a list of options, but I suspect they are designed for large operations.  

Please let me know if you would like me to provide more information.I would like to live here and rent out rooms to cut costs but one of the rooms is much too small for someone to live in comfortably.

There are plenty of properties that you can purchase for 80-90% of ARV that will give you instant equity and a more comfortable first purchase. 

I am pretty comfortable with evaluating properties to invest in, and knowing what should be a good deal and what's not a good deal but I need help with the legal stuff.

There are good low income tenants, you just need to find them, and you must have finances to be able to keep the property back for a time finding a tenant you are comfortable with.

I like cosmetic rehabs as they are easy wins and a great way to gain experience and understand designs and rehab costs. 

However I do not have an eye for designing or decorating.

We see that Chinese are much more comfortable now in looking at more options - this is a normal process of a maturing investment community.  

Even in very exacting jobs (e.g. space craft design), where even a small mistake is literally a mission critical life & death issue, they use 'rules' to avoid over-engineering (or to use another phrase 'analysis paralysis').The 'rules' for real estate investing are not intended to be exact or fully comprehensive.