For work, he inspects offshore oil rigs which makes him an absentee owner.

Most sellers will negotiate to appraisal price, since they risk leaving the deal to find a cash buyer or another buyer, with the gamble of a second appraisal coming in different.

Knowing what I know now, I probably took more gamble than I should have because I didn't have much in the way of cash reserves and the house definitely needed some fixing up. 

In order of preference, they like Inheritance data ( ie, deceased spouse data), pre-delinquent data ( people who have 3 months or less to pay their tax bill), and the one thing I can not scrape, gambling debt data.  

Welcome to BP @David Gamble as you have learned there is very little small multi in Charlotte.

You might pull it off, and if you're a gambling man go for it, don't let us experienced folks stop you.

Smart investors don't gamble and they will abate. 

If you put an inspection requirement in a foreclosure they will not take your offer.I have bought a few foreclosures and can tell you it is a gamble, just make your offer low enough to deal with it. 

Shoot, are YOU okay with gambling on yourself like that?

Have you closed on the deal or still able to opt out.Keep in mind most SFHs do not generally produce much cash flow, if any, so you are probably gambling on appreciation.