I guess the only drawback that I see from FHA is that you cannot buy homes with any forms of distress so it is harder to find a home under market value. 

However, I am not familiar with the area and there must be other risks/drawbacks to account for this. 

The only "drawback" was that I had to pay cash, because no (conventional) lender would underwrite these loans.

Can anyone list some benefits/drawbacks of purchasing an REO property?

Indeed, an ethical agent in this situation will keep these details to themselves.ConsConflict of interest: This is the biggest drawback to dual agency and the reason why some states ban it.

There are drawbacks. 

A month to month can be better for some properties, but there can be drawbacks too.

There are drawbacks to these units as they are usually smaller 1 bedroom apts, so there is more turnover, but for now I am managing.

The draw back to these loans is that they are more paperwork heavy than the other "portfolio" types of loans....but if you have ever received a loan on your primary home, it's likely that you will go through the same type of paperwork here with conventional lending.

The only drawback to that is the additional agent fees that would cost the seller.This is just my 2 cents based on what I have learned.