If she has a 630 score but her husband has 800, you're probably pretty safe. 

Many people earned well in real estate investing from buying a property at a low price and selling or renting them out at marked-up rates. They even seek out run-down properties and do a makeover to increase the value...

I have found nothing like that within 500 miles of my area to see what a CAP rate would be...Am I safe to use a commercial apartment building as a comp? 

I've managed some homes with ramps and I typically leave them there as long as they are safe and neat in appearance.

Sometimes, you can move them slightly if the income approach is much higher, but your best bet to move an appraisal is meeting the appraiser while they are performing the appraisal and talking up how great the asset is, the improvements, the shortcomings of other comps, etc.  

If I am looking at the long term this is safe and profitable, but if I want to scale into RCFE then perhaps this may be a good time.

@Luke Farrar sounds like but and hold should be first and maybe you should add flips later.There is a lot less that can go wrong, generally, with a nice safe B class buy and hold that is close to turn key or needs a light value add.

my self :). we specialize I mulit-units in MA from beginner into the commercial realm with national commercial lending resources and the top 1031, DST, Safe harboring and fund compliant management for syndications

Thus, its safe to say that the neighborhood itself is in fact C+/B-.What has your experience been with the introduction of low-income, subsidized housing (at a larger scale) as it relates to property values in middle to upper-middle class neighborhoods? 

To achieve that you would need to make improvements to the property or add square footage so that it is better than other homes in the neighborhood.Your best bet for no money down is finding a dump, fixing it up, renting it out and then refinancing because the appraisal will be substantially higher.