For more reasonably priced flips, your best bet would be to pick up estate sales in condo buildings where the units haven't been updated in 20-30 years.

I bet about 10 hours a week is how much I'm on here.

Be very careful of the Internet it has many crooks on it trying to make emotional sales.

If you want risk free, FDIC insured savings account is your only bet. 

Probably setting up a meeting with the title company is the best bet so you can fully describe to them what you are looking to do and accomplish. 

As I began evaluating housing options for when my lease ends in August, I slowly fell into an internet rabbit hole that took me from looking at renting a single room, to buying a house and renting the spare room(s), to debating a live-in duplex/triplex investment, all in the name of getting my monthly housing expenses down (and maybe even turned into a monthly housing income?).

This makes spreading out some of my expenses (internet, meals, etc.) a pain.

I found out about Bigger Pockets surfing the Internet about real estate investing and listened to some YouTube videos with Josh Dorkin.  

I am willing to bet that more times than not, you find those types of key people at REIAs or thru mutual connections, and also that you find them when you aren't really looking for them.

What you're trying to avoid are those folks who haven't paid their cell phone bills, cable, internet and on and on (the record I got was someone with...150...yes, 150 accounts in collections!).