., wear a mask, sanitize your hands regularly, stay 6 ft apart and never be in the same room, etc.).Regarding the housing market taking a dive, that will depend heavily on how the economy recovers from this pandemic.  

The National Association of Realtors® (the "NAR") has advocated heavily for these extensions since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.A big thank you to the National Association of Realtors® (the "NAR") for all their successful lobbying and advocating efforts helping fellow real estate professionals (Realtors®) like myself, plus helping "all us" fellow real estate investors and also, not to forget helping and the "NAR" advocating too, for the general public's "buying, selling and exchanging ("swapping") real estate! 

The rent values are heavily impacted by the location of the homes.

I believe that the most vulnerable, are those Landlords that are heavily leveraged. 

In my experience they're heavily weighted in the Seller's favor. 

The reason they are under 100k is because they didn't appreciate like other markets, so appreciation shouldn't weigh as heavily on your numbers in the first place. 

I think in your situation, putting any money into something your future buyer won't benefit from and/or pay more for should be evaluated heavily.  

But because of the corona virus pandemic, the volatility of the the economy/markets, the mortgage/lender world being a little shaky, and the near future of the real estate market being so unknown, I'm a little wary if I should be looking heavily into acquiring a property during this time.

In regards to investing, I would not rely heavily on appreciation at this point in time.

This space wouldn't count as a bedroom so you wouldn't rent it out to anyone.It sounds like you live in a heavily regulated state like California where the government constantly tells you how to live.