I guess the hard part is finding a lender who specializes in VA Loans. 

You'll still find yourself in the same general price point.

That is a great point as well, I have noticed there are a lot of Accountants/Bookkeepers out there that have no idea what they are doing with Real Estate and they think it is like other types of business, they charge based off those businesses and find out they have to do more work and Real Estate needs more details and separate reporting and they do the bare minimum which ends with an investor having to pay someone like me to clean up everything and get them back on track.

However, there's obviously no guarantee in what they'll find... so - how do folks mitigate the risk of the 2k-5k loss when looking to purchase a new property for a plan like this?

Hey Eli, hope you've been able to find a reputable company, but I can PM some suggestions over as well if you still need some.

Lately I find myself doing clerical duties making sure that I'm escrowing enough for taxes and insurance when I should be buying and selling notes and properties.

Add up these numbers to find the total amount of money required to close the sale.Private lenders can help manage cash flow during property renovations or lease-ups by providing more inventive financing options like interest-only payments or deferred payments.

As a new investor I am working to find the right balance of allocation towards Vacancy, Capex, Emergency, etc.

Designing and building single family homes with emphasis on build-to-rent juxtaposed built-for-sale are benchmarks that I am interested in making Americans' lives better through homeownership.How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

If you can find a 'prefinished slab' company, you should be able to get a regular size kitchen done in granite/quartz for <$2000.IMHO, it is worth it and can justify a rent increase.