Note that these aren't pure C class properties, I don't think, as I described above. 

This might be purely due to the landing page when you click on forums.

Some may have succeeded by jumping in without the full knowledge but if they survived it was likely only through pure luck.

If it's truly cash-flowing $73/month off of one unit and both units are rent-ready,  then that would mean the other side would provide 100% pure cash flow and you'd have to put nothing else into this deal other than a down payment.

A conventional rate term refinance can go up to 95% of your current homes value so even if you value did not go up at all you may already be at 95% of your market value just purely from amortization/pay down.If you're lucky values may have gone up a bit and your at 95% LTV or lower (your loan divided by current appraisal value).This will free up your full VA entitlement so you dont have to deal with a partial entitlement problem.If you do not refinance and leave your current VA loan in place it will be much more difficult to refinance it later on.

  $750 is insurance greed pure and simple.  

I have a propensity to take the risk if there is a greater reward and I am looking to generate returns for a longer-term time frame of 5 - 7 years.How would I go about making my investment decision to deploy this 30k purely as an investor?

The purpose of my trip is actually two-fold - I will be spending 2 days purely for leisure doing some sightseeing and I will have 3 days with property visits and meetings.

For the rest of your life, every time you try to uphold his memory, there's a small sarcastic voice in the back of your head that reminds you that he knew less than nothing about money.By pure dumb luck & juvenile arrogance, I made sure that would never happen, by encouraging my Dad to buy a couple of short sale properties during the crash 8 years ago. 

I say it with pure humor and respect for math way over my head.