But that might very well mean they tell you the place is not inhabitable and you have to move.

Laws for landlord/tenant are very state specific, however typically the tenant doesn't pay when the property isn't habitable (this situation) and can either breach the lease or sue for damages when the property cannot be inhabited for more than a few days (I think it's 5 in my state). 

A realtor noted that in California, the inhabitants have one month of "buffer" for each year they've lived on the premises.

I went to them and I told one tenant that she had to vacate the unit because it was inhabitable and it became a nightmare.

I knew that I had to evict her because when the unit was shown to me, it was inhabitable and she wa living for free, she had 2 months without paying rent.

Active duty and military vets have a huge advantage over us civilians- the VA loan is a crazy wealth building tool if you understand how to leverage it and recycle the benefit. 

Conventional lenders generally want to see the house in "habitable condition."   

Choosing to do something unique like live/work gets complicated because it inhabits very gray areas in zoning or code requirements, and when your team isn't experienced with the concept there's a lot of if/then (if we go strictly commercial we have to do xyz, if we go live/work do we have to designate how much area is work?

I they are both inhabitable and in good shape.  

It was bank owned and most of the units were/are still un inhabitable.