Already replied to your other post about Detroit questions.Your latest questions:1) Simple: you don't offer asking price, you offer an amount that makes your numbers work.2) You're looking in the wrong places, using the wrong search criteria - there are tons of deals available!

I waited a few days and raised my offer to $255,000 and they accepted. 

Are there any guidelines or best practices (ie: rewiring such a property would be more valuable than updating insulation).Is it something you need to ask the insurance company about to get, or is all this determined in the initial interview with the potential insurer?

It is not a scam, but you will have a very hard time finding a deal that is worth working with them, and frankly you are going to have to find someone that does not understand at all what their property is worth and get them to accept a super lowball offer to make it worth it. even then their points and fees will eat up so much that getting the 10% down loan will have a much much higher profit margin. 

It automatically get county information, shoots out numbers to offer, text message, call, schedule walk throughs, email.

I may specialize in VA loans, but I also offer a range a conventional, FHA, USDA and commercial lending options. 

I am seeing more lenders starting to offer manufactured home loans, that normally did not. 

For example, if I were to invest in Columbus, Ohio, could anyone share their insights on which neighborhoods or parts of the city offer good returns?

Come to think of it, though, I can't imagine why they wouldn't let me perform one just to understand how much I can offer.  

I would be willing to share mine as well including the sheet I built to calculate where your offer needs to be on a house hack for it to make sense.