But always remember that RE is a risky venture, and you could go through years of less than stellar performance.

According to their SEC filing of the $300 million in loan they made, $299,300,000 was NON PERFORMING.  

@Chris Kay finding a quality, cost-effective contractor is extremely difficult:(There are thousands of contractors that are great talkers, but rarely perform within budget.Standard bait & switch is to lowball a bid, then once they get started all sorts of things "pop up" that somehow their bid didn't cover.

As I'm new to this domain, I would to hire a consultant to perform some zoning and other due diligence activities.

In fact, someone just called me last week and had a non-performing rental package that they purchased in the same fashion and the prices they bought at, considering the actual condition and historical performance of the properties was too high in my opinion. 

HUD performed extensive due diligence on us, and had to approve us as buyer's and our management company and mangers.

If these homes were such great investments, they would keep them for their own portfolio.When you purchase an investment, calculate your returns based on actual performance.

This is purely anecdotal, but I've noticed that the top performing properties in my area lead with an exterior shot.

Or are they performing some sort of arbitrage and they are not the end buyer.

Tossed around quite a bit and it isn't what it once was, but the value is still very high based on past performance and brand recognition.