@Jeff Nash, noted the two year period. 

@Denver McClure Thank you for reaching out and extending the invitation.

Zillow tracks all listings for all periods.

Say they sold the properties over 3 year period and could not sell the rentals together as a portfolio.Could they put the money from each sale into a DST then use the total to buy a expensive rental property?

You can protect yourself with a short contract period.

If they have, you extend that time to 6 months from date of death.On top of that, every month you delay buying the house, the loan balance is going to increase. 

The main issues a lot of investors/PM's run into is the inspection period since Section 8 inspections are no walk in the park.

We are planning to hold it for 5 years and bought a rate cap to cover the entire hold period. 

Maybe the 2017 tax and jobs act gets extended, but either way, if tax savings is the primary motivation, don't do it. 

They were abandoned and needed significant work which wasn't a huge issue but in terms of HUD owned properties i heard there can be significant processing periods.