(i.e I'm willing to do the work and troll lists if necessary.....) and  I'm aware that personal preferences and goals are ultimate determinants, but I'm just curious to hear perspectives on the "where" &  "why"  from a practical sense in choosing a state (tax lien), area, location, type of asset, etc and what constitutes the best (ideal) win-win situation in terms of time, money and effort spent in those cases.

In terms of financing, would you look to get a loan for each individual property from a specialty/private lender that looks at the rental income of each property?

Real estate in this area is a beast all of its own.I'm as green as it comes in terms of real estate investing, so I don't have advice on the deal overall.

This is our most successful marketing in terms of ROI and response rate.  

But yes, most apartments are self sustaining in terms of cash flow and expenditures.

That's just a consideration but I think it will go a long way in terms of your learning curve.

Then again, I'm just learning all this so maybe I'm wrong but like I said, it seems that homes in very poor condition are selling for more than a rehab would cost to bring them up to comps in the area.I would imagine that what I want to do with the place is nicer than what I would do with an investment property so that will definitely coming to play with regards to the price of the rehab, but I wouldn't necessarily call it a "dream home" because for me a dream home would be completely custom top-of-the-line everything, like 300k rehab or new home at $200/sqft.For this I'm really looking for primarily structural changes and then say level 4 out of 6 in terms of quality spectrum.

I've been doing my homework and just getting to the point after a few months of analyzing properties and reading all the standard books where I'm going to look at properties that meet my criteria for cash flow & are in my wheelhouse in terms of price & renovation needs.

Hunt for what you already see the investors buying in terms of bed/bath/SF/garage

You are not putting in money on the deal.I'm aware that there are many options in terms of investor financing.