While wholesaling is the business of finding properties to put under "contract" to transfer the contract to buy the property from one set of owners to another in a short period of time.

Hello BiggerPockets Community,I hope this post finds you all well.

My goal is to build a real estate portfolio that can generate either passive or active income well into my retirement (58 years old now).

I like having options so something to consider as well!

There is a legal doctrine known as "adverse possession" by which trespassers who openly inhabit and improve a piece of property that is otherwise abandoned may gain title to that property after some specific conditions are met.

I imagine there are a lot of 3/2 that probably sleep 8-10 and if you can offer a slightly larger bed count and a cool game room/theme room you can differentiate yourself a bit from your competition and get some extra revenue through slightly higher rate (extra person fees, etc) as well as an overall higher occupancy. 

The area should appreciate over the next few years as well.

I would just hire a guy to remove the popcorn ceiling - they might be able to weigh in as well as give you a quote. 

full transparency, my partner and I got ourselves into trouble last year forgetting to file our local taxes in our new mucipality as we did not realize local taxes needed to be filed as well. we ended up hiring a tax accountant at the very last minute to help (after receiving mailed noticed) and went through all of this trouble for a measly $20 return. at least we got something for it, I suppose. 

There are also 80% LTV options available as well around 7-9% interest too.