Welcome to Bp James I'm from Tampa ,fl. myself born and raised educate yourself with Rei books ,ask question from pros and listen to podcast read ultimate beginners guide you will find your niche and also go to Rei clubs in your area you will succeed.Good luck David c.

My goal is to develop the SYSTEM that systematically works to find off-market leads, acquires them, fix them enough to raise the rents, and either flip them or hold them (hold is preferred). 

Get some basic business cards and hand them out to everybody you know.

Than i seized the day, I tried out furnished rentals on two of our houses (HUGE impact on why we are successful) and so successful we will be doing it to 2 more houses), raised rents during natural tenant turn over (from 1250 to 1450), and so on. 

There are many activities when trying to raise money that require legal disclosure or license.  

They let my tenants pay me using their bank account (ACH) or credit card. 

Perhaps screening would have raised flags, but not always, though there is no excuse to fail to do it. 

Look into an unsecured personal line of credit, or balance transfer/cash advance from a credit card if the deal really is that good.

I know this is where the big dogs play but, this is where I was born and raised.

If it's a decent sized multifamily and if you haven't raised the rent 50% in the past three years, but basically maintained them then I would probably use some equity to buy another well cash flowing property.