Homes have been sitting much longer, and sellers have their reasons to sell.

All you really have to do is find the buyers yourself...you want to sit around and wait for a check from jerry Wow?

Sit back and collect checks *(or no checks).

But if you do have a house that sits in expansive soils and are susceptible to shrinking and expanding they can put pressure on the basement walls (exacerbated by frost/thaw cycles) and cause them to crack horizontally.

I think having a good strong team and good track record is essential  debt is better but in 2008 I saw some of the largest companies in real estate like JPI in early 2000's owned / developed a lot of land and was build ready and ended up going under because of slow down and lack of construction - if you do not sell and economy goes south, sitting on a shovel ready project can get expensive and go the other way quickly.  

$1,500-$1,600 is about the going rate for a 2/2 in most average areas of BR, but I can see where some neighborhoods would get more.Another thing to think about - if the property is sitting vacant right now and you have ready and willing (and qualified) tenants, then the opportunity cost of waiting an extra month or two is $1,550/month.

Sit on your cash for a year.  

You can find some 2 units under or around $250K but they have been sitting on the market for over 150 days which tells you its not a great deal if it were an investor woud have already purchased it 4 month ago.  

You will want to have properties under contract before bringing a contractor out to walk the place with you.If I were in your shoes I'd have a 30 minute call/zoom/coffee with a couple of local GC's now and come prepared to explain to them exactly what you are looking to do.For example when I first got started I was targeting single level, 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom, 1,800 square foot homes, with 2 car garages, that were sitting on 7,500 square foot lots, and that were built of block in the 1950s/1960s.

I am currently living out of state so I have hired a property management company to handle this task, however, my home is still sitting vacant with very few prospective tenants.