I've also heard that sellers have went to the banks to get an approval to allow a sale via Land contract.

It's probably better to work on a 4-6 year timeline too which allows you to adjust after hopefully reaching your goals.

My personal view is as follows: I am not a professional, so I don't deserve to be paidI am learning new skills that will/have allowed me to better negotiate with professionalsIt was a great teaching opportunity with my kids. 

This allowed me to negotiate directly with the seller and avoid middle men.

-Pet rent Depending on your building you can add income by allowing pets and charging for them.

We add dishwashers, central HVAC in everything we rehab, and try to add some other nice feature when budget allows - full fenced in yard, for example, or nice storage shed, something like that. 

In general you are not allowed to charge two people rent a the same time.  

Anyway, a local lender should allow you to do the same structure.

Other renovations included new roof, appliances, AC, flooring, lighting, paint, conversion of 100 amp glass fuse panel to 200 amp thermal CBs and the elimination of gas lines. 

He is invaluable advice, free resources and payed.http://www.themichaelblank.com/session42/ this is great podcast to get started and allows you to visualize attaining something in a relatively short time period.