I agree 100% with Dave Foster; in fact I used t have a friend from Salt Lake City who before he passed away had a company he named HAB; Highest And Best.  

One thing I don't like about doing this in NY is that most NY laws are more tenant-friendly than landlord-friendly and that is a concern for me since I personally saw my grandmother trying to evict someone from her apartment and that process taking well over 2 years and thousands of dollars in legal expenses.

I have a friend living in NYS.

Of course I kept all the material receipts and paid my father and the handymen but I did not hire a contractor so I do not have proper invoices but only receipts...I probably spent around 60 to 80k for the rehab but even if I could fully deduct the expenses the capital gain would be still very stiff...A friend suggested I should reinvest right away and do a 1013 exchange to defer capital gains and another friend mentioned to reinvest through RealWealth Network.

I have an agent friend in Raleigh who has said the same thing.

A friend of mine noted that some do that to actually discourage renters during the renovation process, so they can finish and have access.

It will be extremely unlikely that you find a HML to give you 100% funding on your first deal.They will all require you to have a down payment and some skin in the game.You will also need funds for rehab because they typically reimburse you afterwards.You'll either need to save up or get private money (friends, family, etc) for the down payment.Otherwise you can always explore creative financing options like seller financed deals, etc.

You can easily get a 3 family house within your suggested price range, the property taxes are low and PA is not as super tenant friendly as NYC.

I had a friend who made an absolute killing renting out all of his units by the room rather than the full unit.  

So take an agent for example, I know some and some are friends.