The 1% rule is just a spitball way to look at a deal on the surface very quickly.

I only have one rental right now but am looking to expand as quickly as I can. 

I want to avoid the MLS and get the best bang for my buck, but also fill the units quickly.

If it is flipping land parcels - i.e, buy and quickly resell - then you can set up a retirement plan for this business. 

A quick search in Mt Vernon between $75k -$80k... every house looks like it needs a new roof so make sure you factor that in.

The key is to subscribe to Pacer and watch each of those properties for a Motion for Relief from Stay - once that has been granted, the foreclosure may proceed, and usually does pretty quickly.

Would you mind a quick phone call where I can ask you a couple questions?

You can get all your deals done correctly on BiggerPockets.Since you have limited capital, you can try assignments or flips to make some quick cash while the contractor or renovator gets the lion's share of the profit since they will be doing all the work to make the property more profitable.

There are arguments that they are not backed by anything or that digital monies are insecure, but your fiat money in the bank is stored electronically and backed by nothing but a promise. 

Just do a lot of reading here on the forums and listening to podcasts and you will quickly turn up a dozen names to research further.You can also look at crowd-funding sites like Realty Mogul, Realcrowd,  Fundrise,  Arborcrowd.