When I see a for sale by owner or I see a building that interests me, I simply knock on the door and ask to speak with the owner. 

It's like a free neighborhood garage sale. 

I did find a SF-2, and it doesn't even allow garage apartments to be a separate dwelling unit.

So then I get a call from an electrical contractor stating that the unit next door is having some issues with their power and they have located that the problem is under my deck, and they will need to remove boards, dig it up, and do a repair.However, a couple of small twists in the story make me nervous.One is that apparently the homeowners are responsible for the maintenance of the power line from from the transformer, so it’s not the association with deeper pockets who is on the hook, its the nieghbor .

I just purchased almost 100 doors a month ago and I have a couple tenants calling giving a 30 day to move out and they have warned me the house was bad to begin with.

The owner keeps the temp very cool and the guys had the doors / windows open because there were in and out all day long.

Don't count out a home with one larger room, that you can add an exterior entrance to (cut in a door where a window is at present) and create a studio with kitchenette. 

Assuming we got out the door around $85,000, put $20,000 into it, and sold it at $140,000...it's not massive but I figured it'd be a good place to start. 

The cities are right next door and function essentially as one community in most respects. 

But they aren't going to work with you if you just walk in the front door, you need to build those relationships.