You need to go to the tax assessors website for the area and look up the property tax bill.In the heart of Atlanta the dumpy cheap houses actually have thousands of dollars per year attached to them in some cases.Make sure the owner of this property is not a senior.

I am not interested in some cheap plastic shed or similar (sorry, no offense).

Right now rent is cheap.

Read these first: "Think & Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill"The Millionaire Next Door" by Thomas J Stanley"Four Hour Work Week" by Tim Ferris"Rich Dad Poor Dad" & "Cash Flow Quadrant" by Robert KiyosakiHow to Books for Real Estate Investing in Particular - When you've built the foundation, I'd recommend "The Millionaire Real Estate Investor" by Gary Keller"Creating Wealth" by Robert Allen "Investing in Real Estate with Lease Options and Subject-To Deals" by Wendy PattonCheck the local library first to check them out, if that doesn't work buy on Amazon for kindle or go to abebooks.com for used books on the cheap.

I'm making this purchase so that I can enjoy communicating with my network, take better pictures, and be more productive than on the cheap and slow phone I have now.Also, I love Craigslist.

40-50X rent for cheap rentals in badish areas. 

You find a cheap home for sale.

All of the properties I have found so far that I might be able to buy and flip are really cheap but they are in areas where there is more crime than other parts of the city.

At this point, we're looking to go beyond nice landscaping and rehabbing on the cheap simply because it's akin to a bandaid approach to fixing something.  

I buy the cheap ones from Home Depot.