Why not buy an existing building and just take it from outdated to modern.

If that is manageable under most circumstances go for it. 5 year balloon not ideal, but essentially you are replacing a 2 year balloon (hard money) so you are safer.

I rent SOME of my homes to people without modern verifiable credit and background (read: undocumented residents or recent immigrants). 

Then learn how to replace $118 Honeywell solenoids on the fly onto an octopus of very hot piping, HVAC quote $425. 

A lot of the valves were replaced, toilets all replaced etc.. everything was bad that we found.

I don't think that the extra room could be converted to a bedroom.My goals are long term cash flow to replace W2.  

I had my water supply pipes replaced with copper and added a lot of electric lines to the kitchens and bathrooms where most big appliances are being used. 

The decisions they make regarding their finances is not necessarily optimized for a real estate investor, meaning you can get recklessly negligent HOAs who don't make necessary repairs (like in the Surfside Condo Greg mentioned) or who are over-zealous in repairing/replacing things that work just fine.

The inherited tenants have lived there for over 17 years so at minimum I expect I will be replacing floors and painting everything.

@Kaelyn Motzel you are exactly right Kaelyn, from a the bigger pockets podcasts and feedback from other managing your first few properties that are small multi family gives you that perspective of how to manage and run a business and you will know what to look for in others when it’s their turn to replace you so you can scale