Hi Michael, consider investment goals, market condition, financial analyst, and professional advice. 

"Most" water damage claims can be fixed and closed within a few weeks or months, where a fire claim "may" take 6 months to 1 year to close out due to more extensive construction, delays in materials or labor, weather/seasonal delays, etc. 

It's more about location than condition/age of the property.

IS the property turn-key/in decent condition?

This is especially true if the property requires significant upkeep or if the heirs live far away.Owners of Distressed PropertiesSellers who own homes in poor condition and can't afford the necessary repairs may prefer to sell as-is rather than invest time and money into renovations.Landlords with Problematic TenantsLandlords who have been dealing with problematic tenants, frequent vacancies, or costly property damage might want to offload the property quickly to cut their losses and avoid further hassles.Owners Facing Major Life ChangesSignificant life changes, such as health issues, retirement, or downsizing, can motivate people to sell their property quickly.

I'm weathering discouragement, learning from my mistakes and moving on to the next lesson. 

Lastly my expectation is not for the VA to be an acquisition specialist and get the property under contract, however I would like for them to be able to gather as much information as possible (motivation, timeline, condition, asking price) and work on not being robotic on the phones.

Assisted living - for those that may have medical conditions that require them to have assistance.

I bought my first duplex in unlivable condition for $45K cash on the barrelhead, spent three years of my spare time making the upstairs a nice apartment and the downstairs liveable on a shoestring budget.

HOWEVER, my question is: given our goals/strategy, when analyzing returns for potential deals on the single-family rentals, along with a relatively low cash-on-cash return of roughly 1-2% should we allow ourselves to consider/count on 1) modest appreciation growth of only 3% year over year, 2) expense increases mirroring the current CPI of 3.5% and 3) low rental upside of only 1% (or even 0% given current market conditions).For example, if a deal gives a TOTAL return of roughly 15% year over year for 10 years but only starts out at about 1% cash flow via long-term rents, is this a good idea?