Tax mitigation was my primary goal, along with exiting the landording rat race of course. 

Also, Texas puts on LLs a duty to mitigate losses and no double recovery.

Insurance companies are a business and inside of that looking to mitigate costs.

How can this be mitigated? 

You also increasingly mitigate your risk against long term vacancy every time a door is added to the portfolio.

Bankers are in the business of mitigating risk and looking for safe returns.

however I am finding standing water in the basement ontop of the vapor barrier despite the water mitigation efforts. 

I personally do not recommend holding condo's or any HOA properties (other than a SFR) as these risks can not be mitigated by you.

It’s important to understand the risks and mitigation but if your investing in New England it’s just something your going to need to be aware of and know how to deal with. 

You can mitigate a lot of the risks with good research, but also, you can trap yourself in a forever loop of endless data with no action if you're not careful.Best to just get in there and learn.