- Is there anyone inhabiting the property?

If you are a civilian investor whether seasoned or new, this could be a great option to start out!

However, you need to send PHB a letter saying why and then get an Acknowledgment back.Stuff like tenant in the same duplex, ADU if the owner lives onsite, change of use from market-rate to affordable, inhabitable due to neither landlord or tenant fault and other stuff.Better option is to watch the guy like a hawk and give him a FOR CAUSE eviction.YOu can find rule on the PHB website. 

@Jonathan Klemm is right, Champaign is a college town but there are still plenty of deals in good areas that are inhabited more by year-round residents.

I'm a civilian working in Army Athletics as a sport coach.

A lot of folks stay in the area after they get out to work Civilian or contractor jobs on post too.

I don't know the location or sales price and no idea of square footage but foundation plumbing and roof let's just guess that's $90000.Say the sales price is $300000 and you put 20% down your payment will be $3150 with tax and insuranceMy guess the rents when you get this inhabitable in 10 months at the very fastest.

However, occasionally there is sufficient baked-in equity in an acquisition that we have refinance sooner (as short as 30-days).If the home is inhabitable, it should make no difference to the appraisal whether there is presently a tenant or not ... sometimes it is easier for an appraiser when the property is empty.    

It's easy to find Fort Bragg (55% of military intermingled with civilian), not so easy to find for Jacksonville, therefore I think the statistic of ~20% intermingled is likely the closest guess we're gonna get to.

For a given amount of capital, I'd rather have 2 C+ units with a higher cap rate than 1 A+ property with a lower cap rate, although the tenant "quality" may be less.Still, when a PM neglects valid tenant concerns about serious plumbing maintenance issues to the point that the tenant walks out and has a valid argument for contract violation for inhabitable space, that's a problem that changing the neighborhood wont fix.