I am not sure if your loan officer would get a better payday but a safe bet is that if they do not have investments themselves I would steer clear of their advice until talking to others with investment experience.  

You need boots on the ground to drive by a property and see if the street and block is ready for improvement.

I started driving for dollars, saw a house, located the owners phone number using  https://www.truepeoplesearch.com/ I called  the owner he said he is ready to sell, to make him an offer.

I highly recommend spending a day or two driving around and taking notes on different neighborhoods and areas. 

There are of course numerous other ways to market to off-market deals like FaceBook, Cold Calling, Google Adwords, Driving for Dollars, Networking with other investors/Realtors, Bandit Signs, etc...

I find a property, drive by and look at them, check the neighborhood etc.; he provides seller’s reports so I can better analyze the deal; if something looks good, I get my contractor involved and we all talk about it.My agent and I also have an understanding that I need to network with other agents to increase my deal potential, he gets that.

Drive wayRoofgrading/drainage repairsThose 3 alone are costing me about 12k

Drive around and see what other similar properties look like and if you can talk to investors in that area.

I run the numbers twice, once with conservative estimations and again with current market numbers, seems the vacancy currently is closer to 6% and not 10%, but I’d rather be safe than sorry.

I was talking to my banker in Hillsboro and asking them how the other builders are doing  and its slow across the board.. and I think what you seeing Is pricing finally starting to level off.. which will mean subs will have to quite jacking their prices and lumber will have to calm down or building is going to slow a lot .Now one thing that was floated at least in our area here is this was the first summer that many finally felt financially safe enough to go on that extended vacation that they had been putting off so foot traffic is way down.. and I know when I go to PDX I am usually parking on the very top floor :).. and airline tickets to Hawaii have doubled and tripled .. so we know demand is there.