But she takes excellent care of them (even put in a small concrete pool for them to play in during the summer:-).

Other wise they would have bought it at the auction and would have told you they owned them so you would not waste your time and money bidding.. that's the other play these redemption buyers play.

If this is your first investment and your first property, the quickest way to fail is to create an uneven playing field.

I also have one neighborhood that I am hoping to purchase an SFH as an appreciation play.

the one that broke even was a fix and flip play that the fix happened but the flip did not work. 

I also have rentals in Detroit that I get far higher rents with cash paying tenants than I would a section 8 tenant.There are a lot of factors at play and the answer to "why would the government allow our tax dollars to be spent this way?"

The article below sheds light on how DSCRs come into play with the BRRRR method.

Let’s have fun 

I want to play devils advocate, to have a convincing argument.

Real estate investing is a team sport and at different points in the game different players will play more important roles.