Questions need to be asked and answered: "What's the context of the listing," "How long has it been on the market,"  "Is there other interest,"  "Are there other showings," "What are the area tenant demographics likely to yield in terms of additional applications," etc. etc.  

Wish me luckYour willingness to get “down and dirty” will pay big dividends in terms of accelerating your learning curve and gaining insight into the nitty gritty of marketing/sales.  

I'm trying to find out what you're passionate about in terms of real estate (in addition to making a lot of money!).  

You read my mind in terms of concerns and also provided valuable markets to look into.

The south side is probably the best bet, but I'm staying away as it is very "random" from block to block in terms of safety.I'd be happy to connect and share ideas.

make sure to look into the potential rental income from the other legal units as well as that could help you qualify for more if your personal income "cannot," get there.An example would be a fourplex, if you live in one you could in theory use 75% of the other 3 units (lets say 1500 each X75% = 1125 per month) to give you around 1125 X 3 = 3375 more gross income per month.If you're only at 6k gross income per month now you can get up to 9375 per month in terms of qualifying income.This add of income to help qualify can only be done in legal 2-4 unit properties and in some cases with ADU income (freddie mac conventional).

Quote from @Timothy Hero: Sorry if this was already asked, but what's an average return per year, in terms of cash flow?

In my opinion, the A-class route is actually less risky in terms of tenant quality and property performance, even though you're bringing more capital to the table. 

Do you have a number of properties you think is a limit in terms of what is feasible to manage?

They're similar to hard money in terms of rates but they offer more flexible payback periods.