By having additional parcels, investors can generate more equity and value compared to simply adding an ADU.

Figured there would be a few data points left out of the equation' that I would need to circle back with :) .There are additional units not rented at this time which could be rented to increase the income.

My budget is in the $200-250K range.Please feel free to let me know if additional details would help, and thank you in advance for your time and advice! 

In addition I am giving him freedom to explore (to a certain extent) on my dime.

I wanted to help them out and minimize their loss and saw an opportunity to get a property slightly below market because of my commission savings, immediate mortgage and maintenance relief, in addition to keeping a lower short term interest rate How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

Even if the rental has a decent cash flow with additional flood insurance, we're still not sure we want to take on that risk as we are out-of-state investors (planning to move back to KY in the future, but not now) and we don't like that it will potentially bring down the perceived value when we try to sell it in the future.The seller has never lived there and has not provided any information on if it has flooded before or not. 

Instead of losing 55k they will probably only end up losing $25,000 - $30,000Long term its not a great cash flow property but with some renovations and addition of a parking slab I think long term appreciation is the big goal here.

Maintenance/cap ex, insurance, if a rental PM, bookkeeping, misc.The fact you have a loan means 1) leverage 2) equity pay down.In addition, there are tax benefits.So I will do some rough underwriting as an OO non-rental at 95% LTV (because FHA has some undesired consequences that make the 1.5% difference in LTV worth avoiding the FHA).equity paydown: 20% (using OP interest rate at 95% LTV and not counting closing costs). 

You can prevent this by requiring them to add you as "additional interest" on their policy.

Big expense up front, additional expenses over the life of the lock, they can be too complicated for renters to figure out, and they don't solve all the problems a landlord may face.