These type opportunities do not occur every day.

Starting out, either can work but if you go the SFH route, at sometime in the future one of two things will occur.  

I feel like over a short time horizon you can show positive cash flow, but the longer you own that house, the greater the chances of 1-2 incidents occurring that wipes out years of "profit".   

If you are setting aside funds for capex, taxes, insurance, or other expenses that don't occur monthly, transfer those funds to Savings each month and hold them there until it's time to spend them.

I may not know exactly what those expenses will be or when they will occur, but I know they will occur eventually, so I set money aside for them.This year is a great example.

Pretty good, everyone throughout the process was responsive, even with getting the appraisal done around the thanksgiving holiday, I’m cautiously optimistic about using them again given what occurred in the first experience.

Those present two very different levels of risk.You should also consider how long ago the offense occurred and what the individual has done since then.

One of my properties (in Palm Bay, Florida) recently encountered a leak which apparently occurred because the AC unit may not have installed properly.

It is your responsibility to change the air filter to prevent this from occurring (see Lease, page 3, paragraph 2). 

Typically you are lending at low LTV which gives you some cushion in case things like this occur.