They've paid 5k up front and have made all rent payments. 

i'm not complaining, paying taxes means that I made money. 

I havent made too many connections just yet, looking to develop some in my area.

Ive owned properties in Chelsea, and Ive made a lot of money there. 

You'll just need to find the balance of giving amazing and caring customer service to those sellers in need along with remembering as an investor, you are a business and you will need to create a win win situation for both you and the seller.

I want to pay for future customers. 

If you buy a house that requires $50K in renovations for $50K below market value (value after renovations), then like you surmised, there is no profit to be made -- after the renovations, the house is worth what you paid plus what you spent in renovations.

Of course, that depends on how easily the upgrades can be made.

Once we got to the freeway it was an improvement as they are made to handle a lot of vehicles and virtually the only ones on the freeway in the evacuation areas were the emergency vehicles and those evacuating.La Jolla has a bad traffic bottleneck even without an emergency. 

To make a plug for @Dean Harris, I bought a property from him a few months back and when you're buying from someone in another state, you can be weary, but I saw videos from Memphis Real Estate House on Youtube and that definitely made me feel like "yeah, he's legit" so I was more than happy to buy from him.