I ask because a lot of new investors are getting lured into the thought of them because you get paid by the government this alleged "guaranteed rent", but that's not really how it all works.The Section 8 website for your area or the larger one should have metrics per square foot for the area.

on top of that there were at the time close to 40k vacant homes.. so all sorts of mortgage fraud..

Use some for buy and hold (I personally would prefer apartments rather than buying a few single family homes) and some for lending/trust deed investing.In either category, you must know what you are doing, know how to vet the investment, how to vet the sponsor (if investing in a larger fund of some sort), the laws and regulations on the lending side, how to investigate which areas to invest in buy and hold and notes/trust deeds for that matter.So as you have already said several times, lots to think about . . . 

Seeing as how I'm not sure if you are communicating this properly, but one could be crossing ethical / legal boundaries --- maybe.Personally, the rental activity for that sort of property and tenant would not be worth the time.Thanks for letting us know. 

Iwhen underwriting we also want to know the exit strategy of the borrower to make sure they are not limiting themselves to a single exit I honestly don't know how enforceable it is, but 24 hours to respond to any sort of communication is more than reasonable in my opinion.

Will it immediately move to full transaction price, or does this jurisdiction use some sort of flat percentage increase.You should know how frequently the property will be reassessed thereafter.

Then there is a sort of echo chamber where social media spreads this idea to more and more people and somehow it becomes realistic. 

Also, it sounds like you are in a great time of life to rent to roommates - I don't think you would regret figuring out a way to do some sort of house hack like that right now!  

If you are buying large multi-family, I would follow larger developments so your investment has a rock to support itself.

I agree with Afra at that price point it's best to start with flips that have $15K - $30K rehab budget to gain some experience and get a good team in place and then work your way up to larger rehabs with higher ARVs!