With condos you also loose a lot of control over the property, especially in that price point, if the whole building starts to look bad you will start to loose value quickly, or if they decided that they need to do a lot of capital improvements then you will get additional assessments for that and as you mentioned appreciation wont be much if any.

That's already a huge improvement over what most people are doing. 

I provided details on how to improve credit, what to avoid and so forth and provided them assistance with anything they had questions on and lender contacts.

How can I improve upon it?

It’s rather simple, if the deal is really worth more than your paying, and requires no improvements, then you just wait 12 months (season the property), and refi at at market value.

I'm not worried about the hit in lost salary/benefits, but more on how to productively use my time to improve my life. 

I am a medical assistant and make decent money and have great benefits but would love to improve my cash flow and create strong equity as I have little to none at the momentI am currently looking at a few multi family homes but in the issue of figuring out how to finance it as I dont have the substantial down that most are looking for and my credit score is not great (but i am working on that and should be much stronger within the year)cant wait to chat with you guys!

Down money isn't the only qualifier -- they of course look at credit score, time at job, earnings (whether it's salary or commission, it's still W2 income)  and they'll offer suggestions as to how or what you can do to improve your situation.

Market values are high right now, and turnkeys are typically priced around market value.The best way to ever add value to a property is to improve the property itself.

Our next 5-year short-term goals are:CALIFORNIA  MULTI-UNIT APARTMENT:Prioritize cosmetic/capital improvements for the CA propertyIncrease Rents to Market Rates for maximum cash-flowExplore web-based Property Management/Payment System/Security Cameras Software Tools/Smartphone drivenEstablish a CA LLC Operating Structure to protect liability/assetsIncrease our HELOC Line and maximize equity in CA propertyDevelop and improve GM Maintenance partnerships I can trust for an out-of-state remote until we decide to contract a reputable Property Management company.