So we waited 3 days over a weekend to talk to the loan officer to make sure that what I wanted to do(put 1% down for earnest money and roll the closing fees into the loan) was possible however, when the loan officer finally said it was alright, we tried to put in the offer and found out the seller had accepted another offer that day.Am I just trying to do things with a VA loan that aren't possible?

With Opp zone your in for 10 years unless you recycle the investment into another Opp zone deal and it starts all overThis site explains everything about Opp zones https://eig.org/ The biggest issue for what you are looking at is the substantial improvement test.

If its not either one of those I'd fo a water test on the plumbing waste. 

You will likely have to test different ways and see what works best for you. 1) Driving/walking your local market (driving for dollars).

We're having a soil sample test done next week. 

Also you can only do ground up or heavy value add in Ozones as you need to meet the substantial improvement test.

This is usually the case with the tax roll not keeping up with appreciation.

The test is pretty challenging.

I normally leave a full roll of aluminum foil in every STR. 

I ended up using alot of practice tests to help me pass the test.