I'm sure every town is different, but I am trying to see what type of objections I would get and what the likely hood of actually being able to get a variance would be. 

Take photos, get objective costs of replacement/correction.  

@Luke GrieshopI'm in the midst of getting my license now and my primary objective is to save on commissions (which can turn a meh deal into a do-able one) and have access to properties without having to wait for an agent.

A legitimate seller will have no objections to you doing as much investigation as you wish.

It's objective, it reduces my screening costs and energy. 

If the numbers don't make sense based off of your cash flow objective, you can either make a low offer where the numbers would make sense or you can move on and keep looking for a property where the numbers make sense.

An agent that blows off their duty to existing clients is the same one that will be blowing you off later chasing a new shiny object.

Also I've noticed lately that my local builders supply has lots of pergo for > $1.99 sqft in smaller quantities. 

I do get the feeling though that you probably just meant to fix it and flip it and in that case you're right it' wouldn't qualify.However, if you're looking at a loan against it to buy something then you could put a tenant in and evaluate after a bit whether two rentals fit your objectives or whether you should sell one and then 1031 into something else.

But for some objective numbers, I tend to see simple cap rates ranging around 7 to 10 percent, sometimes as high as 12 or 13 percent.