All are relatively freshly renovated as well... some have older HVAC units but are tuned yearly. 

Some easy DIY to use in your landscaping plan: Applying the best organic weed/feed treatment for your area during this spring season to encourage a lush lawn, mow every 10-21 days (depending on rainfall and growth rate), use an edger along the hard surfaces of your lawn (along the driveways, sidewalks, porches, etc. which gives your lawn a more defined look), trim hedges and trim limbs back from property (discourages insects and birds from trying to find entries into the property), replace and put down fresh mulch/pinestraw around trees, flower beds, bushes, and shrubs.Please let me know if that helps.Best to you!

Visible mold on the ceiling but I'd rather see that and know what I'm getting into than something hidden with fresh paint.

Originally, my plan was to have the seller give the tenant a 60 days notice and just find our own new, freshly screened tenants (as BP recommended) BUT upon hearing that they are willing to stay and are well-paying tenants (which can be hard to find in this market), I figured they can sign a new month-to-month lease and after a few months sign a year long lease if we both okay with living next to each other.

If you don't hear from them after a week, then you should give them a 30-day notice of termination and start fresh. 

They are doing a great job knocking down abandoned houses, fixing roads, sweeping the street, mowing vacant lots etc. i kept hoping the property values would go up but I lately I just don't see how that can happen without fresh blood in the city.

I had negative experience with low income renters in the past, fresh data points to expand my mind are much appreciated1) how has your experience been finding tenants?

While you might feel like you don't have much to offer yet, don't underestimate the value of your eagerness to learn and your fresh perspective.

I don't personally have any experience with buying a multi via FHA, but I can tell you from a seller's point of view ... having not dealt with the FHA inspection aspect before, I was amazed when my realtor advised that I'd need to, for example, repaint the eves of my house because some of the paint was flaking off, and that FHA would likely flag it and not issue a mortgage, because of something as minor as flaking paint ... the eves were freshly paint 5 years ago, mind you, so its not like they had been neglected for 20 years.

Previous rents totaled $710- 2bed/bath upper $310 3bed 1bath lower for $400 After repairs I'll rent the upper for $1000 (cash flow  $500 at first until I Refinance and pull out equity) ARV is $125k-150kI expect to be to pull out $60k liquid to start on other projects while I live for free at a place I gutted and remodeled upscale (to my liking)  My suggestion would be to find a similar "house hack" opportunity, sell your place since the numbers aren't good for a rental and use the equity to start fresh with a duplex.