@Jeremiah Vancans You will be able to find better cashflow in the D-C class neighborhood if you dont mind the drive and headache of dealing with tenants (proper screening can mitigate alot of risk on tenants). 

XX was the name of the company that did the water mitigation.

However I wonder if assistance from others might help mitigate this so that I dont have to wait 3 months to begin if I'm ready now.Thoughts?

It's those maniacs that buy homes cash via quit claim deed off of craigslist that really get screwed.Make sure your property manager is a licensed real estate brokerage.Google Clayton Morris and/or Morris Invest for a cautionary tale of what not to do when buying turnkey real estateUnderstand you can not eliminate all risk, only mitigate it.

How can one make sure that risks are mitigated as much as possible when participating in such online auctions?

It seems to me that if the investor has enough skin in the game and the ARV is sufficient, that mitigates a lot of the risk. 

Others might be fine with taking risk, but least by doing this a person can get an idea of what might go wrong.e) Legal document analysis: it will usually take a few days to go through the legal document properly, as almost inevitably there are tons of gotchas that either have to be explained, or mitigated with a side letter.That is the very short summary of what I do.

If so, you'll need to look into mitigation as well.

What you can do with more units is mitigate that risk and structure the deal such that even if you have a vacancy in a 4plex, the cost of operating that property is still covered the other 3 units - not possible in a duplex in Anchorage that I've seen.I am also active duty, but have a background in real estate, and my wife is currently a realtor who specializes working with military clients.

They get new jobs, get divorced, break up with their boyfriends/girlfriends, have fights with their roommates, and then they just move.You can’t physically force them to stay, and the reality is you can’t even usually legally hold them to the full obligation of the lease because almost every state requires the landlord to mitigate damages and make a reasonable effort to re-rent the place to another tenant.So whose hands are really tied by longer leases?