I am so happy that I went for higher end and bought a property that commands top rent and will appreciate over time. 

I'm not even sure you could command that appreciation in London, England. 

I always had great conversation with people at my different commands. some would listen to me ramble on about how great it was to invest and seemed interested but many never pulled the trigger.

Ex) If you're looking at a house that costs $50k, you'd want the monthly rent you can command to be in the neighborhood of $1000.

Do they command higher rental rates? 

The numbers don’t jive to me as a rental that commands 1.7k ( really 1200 when you take out the 500mo you are paying) should be worth way more than 67k ARV.

A good Realtor knows his/her value and can command 7% easily.

These returns are not as high as some command on the blog.

Wont everyone else know it was in the path of growth and therefore command a premium before you/we/investor wants to acquire it?

I was disappointed to learn this, as I always thought of the "fixer uppers" as the better deals (buy low, fix up, force appreciation and command higher rents!).