Find Brandon's videos on YouTube for the "four square" method of analyzing homes and practice.

And given that, in a major city, there are hundreds of houses put on the market weekly, you need a method to efficiently screen properties to make sure they won't bleed money before you spend time analyzing, touring them ect. 

Options ive looked at are the Burrrr method, house hacking with fha living in the property for a year doing small upgrades and forcing appreciation refinance then rent and repeat that every year until we reach our goal.

I've done various methods and would be happy to connect and knowledge share if you are interested.

Even though I had a full size W/D on site, I still used this method.....

So I'm strongly considering adding a handful of these to my buy & hold portfolio.I understand that there's no "risk-free" method to acquiring these properties subto, but have any of you had success over the long-term acquiring properties with VA loans attached?

That method will increase your ROE significantly more.Also read the BP book on BRRRR investing.

Post on Craigslist seems like another 'guru' but I cannot put my finger on it, he seems to be following Cherif method, not sure what to make of it.

I don't plan on sticking to one method of investing however I do realize that some investors start with Single family and grow into multi-family.

there are of course more creative strategies to reduce that up front outlay, or recoup your capital, like, say, the BRRRR method. but they are time and energy intensive and certainly not hands-off.