Therefore if you purchase in say September, your current years tax bill will be based on the current years value which may be even lower than what you can achieve with the exemption and on investments the value will be updated according to your ATI and will not be reassessed by the county for five years as well as once it is, the increase is capped to a 15% increase in value which is not common and can be appealed which is less often than many other states.Yes, the effective tax rate comes out to a difference of say 0.5% on personal residence to 3.0% on investments, but I would say handling it the right way up front and budgeting for it in your analysis is better than risking it another way.

I was able to get interested buyers (investors) under contract, but a couple ended up backing out either due to the appraisal contingency, inspection, or lack of funds which are all common reasons.

But you need to learn all about landlord/tenant laws, how to do basic repairs, know what average labor and material costs are for common projects. learn about payment systems, how to interview property managers, tenants and handyman services, build a team of realtors, contractors, title, hard/private money lenders, inspectors, appraisers and soooo much more. 

Also, if you are buying a distressed property many times they cannot be inspected fully because utilities may not be turned on and you are fixing so many things already there isn't much risk in whatever they might find anyways. 5.

A common rule of thumb for Return on Equity (ROE) in real estate is to aim for 8-12% or higher.

Is this common practice?

Other people simply do things completely wrong and that "doing it wrong" is commonly labeled as "normal" or the norm.Listen to the data, leave emotion out of it, and crush it!

People work, they are in the middle or organizing after a move, they have utilities to set up - it's a relatively hectic time period for a lot of people.

This is common.

We work with investors everyday that utilize this strategy.