I am going to comment in here mostly to track replies from people with more experience....however, I think it's important to remember that there is a wide range of situations that can lead to the missed payments causing a home to show up as "pre-foreclosure" and different approaches would be appropriate for each. 

There are investment options ranging from one year to thirty years, and the returns are competitive to the other traditional investing options.

I am thinking the 16-20 unit range.

Crappy houses go for like 200,000 to 300,000 and houses in blue-collar areas can range from 450,000 to almost 700,000.

Yes, I agree with you 100%: It's going to be nearly impossible to make a property in this price range work.

There’s quite a bit of available inventory above and below that price range, depending on what you want and what your budget looks like.

I'm looking at 1-2 bedroom units with a rent in the $750/mo range.   

I would make sure to include variables expenses in the range of 4-6% repair / 4-6% capEx / and 5-10% vacancy expenses...

@Nicklaus McCain first, at this point of the market environment please keep in mind that rent increase may not be possible in the next 3-6 or even 2 months.There is a wide range of ways you can reduce expenses apart from the ones you mentioned above.One of the easiest ways is to shop around for better quotes for Insurance and contract services.

However, I have exhausted the duplexes both in the markets and price range I am interested in purchasing.