It's in an area with strong real estate values, strong tenant, ideally located near mass transit.

If you go deeper into Gary, that's where you need to stay away from.Your ideal tenant would be an older couple who don't have kids that go to school so school district isn't an issue for them.

Short term loan with no prepayment penalty would be ideal but open to all options.Thanks for the help!

----Financials----Purchase Price: 190,000 ( I know not an ideal BRRRR discount price)% Down: 3.5% (Again, yikes and I know not ideal)Pre-Reno Rents Appraisal: Top 1B1B - $900 (Assumed tenant paying $800) Bottom 2B1B - 1200Thanks guys!

The idea is they're in the same place or were recently and you can help each other move to the next level, share ideas, keep each other motivated, etc.Direct mail is one strategy that a lot of beginning investors use and it's certainly something you can try, but it's usually better suited to wholesalers than to people finding their first property to buy and hold, only because it requires a lot of persistent time, effort and money, and the few leads you'll get for that will often be in areas you might not want, or require more rehab than you might want, for a property you personally would want to own.Don't get me wrong, you can do well with direct mail and other marketing efforts (such as "driving for dollars", pursuing properties with violations, contacting long-time or burned out landlords, door knocking, probates, divorces, etc.), but I'd say it requires a lot of commitment since it's a numbers game and is really best if it's part of a wholesaling strategy.I guess what I'm trying to say is, I'd recommend picking a strategy - buy and hold, or wholesaling - to start out with, and focusing on that.

So BRRRR would never work with the example you gave, the ideal BRRRR involves you creating 25% equity in the combination of purchase and rehab.

Ideally I would like to find a multi-family house, where I could occupy one of the units and house hack.

We would like to use FHA or low down payment conventional financing, so purchasing as an investment and then moving there is not ideal (or legal based on mortgage fraud I would think).I spoke with a lender and they were saying they cannot loan on CA income.

Ideally we wanted to renovate their unit, but because they paid consistently and on time we focused on the many other repairs we needed to do.

Include in your rental agreement a clause specifying that the mortgage is delinquent and the rental agreement must terminate if the property is foreclosed.Then decide whether you want to rent the property until it is foreclosed, or perhaps you can renegotiate the mortgage amount or terms to suit you.