I do not want to fall behind market rents, I want to contribute to setting market rents and I do not want to turn my business into a charity by supplementing tenants rent.

If I buy the house I can't just break the lease, it must be honored, but I don't want a year of someone paying 30% market rent.It must be nice to be able to run a charity Tom, should I offer to pay their utilities and perhaps buy them a car, because they may be great people?

I don't know why this fascinates me so much (and I recently pitched a reality tv producer about it - with a charity bent to it) but the idea of turning a certain sum into a much larger sum in a time frame captivates me in an unhealthy way.

A bank REO guy does this every day with people who have hundreds of millions to invest in SFRs.In RE investing, you are looking for the magic triad of circumstances:1) Motivated seller - NEEDS to sell ASAP2) Distressed property - will not sell on retail market until it's repaired3) High equity - this gives them the ability to negotiate on price down to where you MUST be if this is a business and not a charity ;-)If all three of those do not exist, the deal could be elusive and you could waste a huge amount of time chasing it.Oh, and the house MUST NOT BE LISTED.

Can someone offer me the early stage process on rehabbing a charred home?

Maybe add in to the lease that all police reports involving problems caused by tenants, or their guests, will result in a $100 fine, to be donated to a charity benefiting police widows and children.

@Kendall T. we won a bicycle for $5 at a charity auction once, I'm sure that was a blessing from God.

I don't run a charity so I want rent to be near market value as much as possible and do regular small increases every year to try and keep it from getting behind.

Your business decision should not be based on helping out unless your a charity.  

In your situation, you are using your investment as a charity.