They’re happy and always leave the review. 

If you're looking to flip and are more concerned about net rental yield for better cash-flow, Valencia is a good option.

The one thing that I thought maybe could be a concern is agreeing on counter-offers or selling price.   

I was thinking about doing a DIY patch job but concerned about the look.

But let them know your concern and your observations and what you plan to do.

I was traveling so we asked the water company to cut the water on at the meter but leave it off to the house.

I just leave them in my lock box unless there is an emergency and i need one. 

My obvious concern is that we'd put $60k into it, have it off the market for a while to get there, arrive in September/October and find ourselves having to accept an offer at $380k. 

Not sure if that's a good rate or not if we went that direction.My father in law has encouraged us to go ahead and lock into a conventional mortgage, but my concern there is the appraisal, as the house in its current condition may not appraise for the sale price.

It leaves with a huge shortage of tax revenue which needs to be made up somehow