My ability to painstakingly investigate our potential tenants, really get into the details of involved criminal and credit histories, has been very useful for us as part of our business plan.

They possibly know the former owner who would be able to help you with your investigation.

We will investigate.

I suggest you call the CCB  and tell them what you want to do .. pretty sure they will say you need a developers license like I have .. or actually I have 3 of them for 3 different LLCs its a pain but after being fined twice you learn.then I would call the department of real estate and ask to speak to an enforcement or investigator and run your model by them..

when I was with the state of Oregon investigator who was interviewing me regarding unlicensed wholesaling in our state.. this was one of her question.. she says wait a minute this is not an investor they are not buying it.. they are just making an assignment fee.. also just putting EM down in their eyes is not equitable interest.. so I don't know Oregon seems that the way people wholesale is violating the licensure laws..

I talked to the local police department precinct involved in the area and the officer thought the right owner could raise the bar for the neighborhood and that the crime they investigate are the usual domestic disturbances or the occasional car break-in and that the neighborhood is pretty good. 

This is the sort of thing you really must investigate before purchasing rather than relying on any seller representation.  

That being said, I would see if you can get a handle on where exactly the spike in use came from and investigate all those leads. 

Further investigation, user error.

Upon further investigation, I discovered that these were currently 100% occupied, C-class properties near the downtown Chattanooga area in C class neighborhoods.