Option 2: get a house with an in-law suite. 5 Bedroom 3 bath. 20k down, PITI would be $1200 get roommates for the upper level to live with me $350-400/month (goal would be 3-4 roommates).

Even by his calculation, you may need to account for more as you may be in the red after two turns and they may come faster than you think.You just have to be very, very careful with how you are viewing a cheap investment like this.Keep in mind that everything is more expensive these days. 

I am told the process for foreclosure is much faster now but your point got me thinking a few things: if I walk away from trying to get the property from the seller directly and let the foreclosure process kick in, I wonder if anywhere in that foreclosure process I can place a bid before it goes on market? 

Again, very cool on many levels as a parent.

If you get lucky and there is some urban renewal that eventually takes place then you'll have decent appreciation or at the very least you could exit by rehabbing the houses, placing additions, whatever it takes to get the house to full retail level for whatever is going on around you and then exit.But if you look in Wichita at a couple of neighborhoods that will never appreciate and have never appreciated - Plainvew and Hilltop - they'll only appreciate if they take a bulldozer there like they should have/were supposed to after WWII/Korean wars ended.

I organize a meetup in South Minneapolis that has been going very well and gets people from all experience levels. 

Knock down brick walls at least 2 feet below ground level.

The humidity levels in units 2 and 3 aren't nearly as bad as on the first floor unit (which is the one I'm currently house hacking). 

On top of that, have to work harder to find deals that works for your number as well as finding money instead of having a big bank account will only have you put together bigger deals faster.

You could lock yourself in a bunker for a month and not watch all the free content he has available.If you are interested in 2nd position notes - @Martin Saenz does education and training.Books will give you a very high (and I mean high) level of understanding but you will not be able to buy a note (or I should say you should not buy a note) after reading a book.