But nothing is bullet proof. 

FWIW I've bought all those guys stuff, they all are slightly different and all are very good IMHO.See my business model:  go to my profile, first parapraph, read the file:  Bullet Proof Rental portfolio.Best of luck. 

Dodged a big bullet there, thankfully I didn’t buy it...but again if I had the title, it would’ve showed up there.

They destroyed everything in one year that was not bullet proof.

The 4th bullet is a weirdly coherent merger of 2 other bullets from the original 12 (not that you'd need to use an attorney and accountant to set up your cozy.co account), just that the sentence totally makes sense otherwise. 

If so, is it just easier to bite the bullet and just have a property management company take over everything?

Yes, you will have access to a VA loan with 100% financing, however:This doesn't to you a whole lot of good if you are only in a duty station for a few monthsDepending on your rank, duty station, and other factors, you may be required to live on base at timesVA loans are only for owner occupantsYour purchase price will still be dictated by your credit and income (see first bullet above), andIt can be extremely risky to buy with 100%+ financing at the peak of the market (I say 100%+ because many servicemembers and veterans roll their VA funding fee into their loan, which can leave them leveraged at 102% or more - with negative equity).

If you know you plan to sell it, bite the $500 bullet and pay a contractor. $500 is cheap in the REI game to make sure you aren't causing yourself larger headaches later down the road.

I guess you would need some one to crawl up on the roof and make sure its OK.. but basically I have not seen more bullet proof rentals that all those row houses I have been funding in Philly and BALT... much much easier that 4 walls and larger roofs et. 

Or just bite the bullet on the first deal or two and build the relationship until you win the PM's confidence to invest alongside you.