I estimate the repairs on my own or based on my acquisitions manager's estimate, but after contracting have GC bid every property prior to close just to make sure we didn't overlook anything. 

Not to mention the fact that the convention center is a big draw all year, there is a thriving downtown, and the winters are extremely mild compared to a majority of the US.

The downside is restrictive guidelines, a ton of paperwork, lack of flexibility.Commercial types of financing have pros that are flexibility in guidelines and structure you can do all sorts of stuff from substitution of collateral to partial lien releases on blanket commercial mortgages to cross collateralization and many others, less documentation than conventional financing products, use of debt coverage ratio (DCR) as opposed to Debt to income (DTI) and if you compare DCR to DTI the commercial lenders go up to 80% DTI since the reverse of 1.25x DCR is .80 or 80%.There are downsides to commercial financing and that is the convenants with in the mortgage note that can allow the lender to call the note so make sure to read all the definitions for what substantiates a "default," by the lender you'll be surprised by the definitions and language at times. 

How do these compare to notes or syndications as far as risk and hassle and returns?

Prior to that I lived in Houston TX.  

I have actually posted here prior to, but got caught up in the 9-5 family lifestyle ...

I did some calling around to different counties to see if I could obtain the list prior to it being posted publically, and some counties said I could purchase it beforehand, and other counties said I could not. 

@Carl Pickens  While not considered "conventional" I've worked with lenders who will issue a commercial loan with comparable rates to cover both buildings on the same parcel or even two touching parcels. 

I'm new but being mentored by a broker who did hundreds if not thousands of BPOs through the crash (broker price opinion, sort of like a non-official appraisal for bank foreclosure and other purposes) and really knows the value of adjustments and when to draw the "not comparable" line.

Also, I am prior military and wasn’t sure if I could do a va loan for a duplex to do the “househack” method as well?