Would this be better suited as a buy and hold opportunity than a buy and rent opportunity because of the safety of the area and the type of residents that the area would probably attract.I am a noob in real estate so any and all advice is welcome.

You could always pay cash for one and then finance two others if your wanting safety.  

But safety and not being by busy streets (clean air & noise) are important.

In fact nowadays everything is digital.

What I want will probably evolve with time, experience, and situational circumstances however RIGHT NOW what I am looking for is a way to grow my savings in double digit percentage without requiring too much time away from my day job and family and without taking on too much risk.

I've never paid that much for hard money.It is correctly noted above that the interest paid to the plan (which might be about 3-5%) is not deductible.If you are able to invest the 401k and earn 8%, then you are also giving up the ~3% opportunity cost of potential higher earnings to the plan.If you lose your job with an outstanding 401k loan, you have to repay that loan immediately or it is counted as a taxable distribution with a potential 10% penalty for early withdrawal if you are under age 59 1/2.The only reason Congress included the 401k loan provision when these plans were created was that they knew folks would not put money in unless there was a "safety value" that could be used in an emergency to pull some money out.My company offers a Solo 401k plan that has a loan feature.  

The electrician came out to fix the problem then said he wanted to do a safety inspection for free.

Use a FHA loan with 3.5% down and use the rest of the money I have saved for improvements and a safety fund.

For a long time I never thought about become an investor for multiple reasons, mostly because I wanted to "do my own thing" but I have decided that I am going to pursue investing full time and make this my career while holding down a 9-5 that I enjoy for benefits and a safety net.This begs the question.

I have came across a duplex that is fully occupied with a double digit cap rate.