The short answer is Yes.

There are far fewer opportunities for leaks to develop in the drain plumbing under the sink when there are less than half the amount of joints within the plumbing.  

Purchase price: $595,000 Cash invested: $125,000 Purchased with the intent to lease to the tenant.

So he must have already bought the duplex or none of these things could be happening.

I'm also on the board of CFRI, the local chapter of the National REIA so that might be a good resource for you to check out too. 

It's not like people won't know that the property isn't in a flood zone; if they finance it through traditional financing then the lender would most likely require that they carry flood insurance. 

And I don't know what the cap rates are in the area for SFRs, but I did a quick Redfin search for a small multi-family home in the area that's turnkey: https://www.redfin.com/VA/Richmond/1622-N-31st-St-23223/home.... 

Let me know and I can set up an interview with the broker/owner. 

And thankfully, by the time I needed to execute on those options and actually complete the purchase of the leased properties, I had developed some private lender relationships that allowed me to complete those 3 transactions and several more thereafter.

Instead of saddling them with a $5M commercial property (for instance), you can turn that into 166k shares and divide them amongst your kids (who are in line to get a full step-up in basis when you pass away).Gotchas: The UPREIT is sometimes an option, and sometimes a mandate.