Ive been looking outside of booming markets - places in the mid west which show steady growth but havent gone as crazy as other areas! 

That said, cash flow is only part of the equation....there is also equity growth, depreciation and appreciation.

I did use one years ago on a flip, for space purposes, worked great, allowed me to grow the kitchen.

She came with a hefty down payment, while mine was small,  however, I had more income and more ability to pay a higher mortgage payment. 

Seems that these are often ridiculously cheap - but I'm thinking the market knows more than I do and they are cheap for a reason.Churches are often beautiful buildings in great shape, but are very awkward to convert into a SFH or apartments.Schools tend to be large projects requiring significant resources to remodel into apartments or senior facility and can be either in decent shape or quite run down.Masonic halls are often very similar to commercial buildings but usually need a lot of rehab.Also many of the bargains are in economically depressed or low/no growth areas.But still the price on these can be so low that getting positive cashflow should be easy.And there may be LIHTC (low income housing tax credits) available - anyone managed to snag any of those?

The growth is supported by some very strong fundamentals. 

Yes, the ability to find great deals appears to be a combination of art, skill and sheer determination.

Here are some articles I've written about Sacramento to help get you up to speed on the market:https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/621/topics/396725-millennial-migration-to-sacramento-2017---here-comes-the-rushhttps://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/621/topics/586279-investing-in-sacramento-or-stockton-which-one-is-betterhttps://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/621/topics/585796-sacramento-rent-control-101-everything-you-need-to-knowhttps://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/621/topics/590913-rent-growth-in-sacramento-is-triple-the-national-averageFeel free to ask any questions about the Sacramento market or the investing process of buying and selling real estate and we'll be sure to get you pointed in the right direction :-)

-Peter Arboleda I'm not sure your ability to make an offer right when it gets listed is an advantage.

Typically the people that are parts of these groups hate change or growth of any kind.