Do not outfit the property to your taste or standards, it's a rental and should be set up as one.

I don't know if the underwriting standards are as strict as they used to be, but in the 2014 time frame (give or take), we owned a duplex for right at a year and were planning on buying a SFH. 

Does anybody have a standard wholesaler contract?

I invest in Orange County which is still very very expensive by national standard and I don’t generally spend much over 200-250k/unit.

@Charles Richardson  most standard contracts have a 10 day due diligence clause and its for any reason.. that's the Maximum time you should tie up a house without non refundable EM.. once you go past 10 days you need to go Hard with your EM. 

Loosening of the credit standards. 

Don't know all that goes into it.Is 12% interest standard in this sort of thing?

I'll do everything legally (if this is legal) with contract and have the proper paper trails.If YES, would it make sense to rent at my mortgage rate or standard rate?

At the moment, I don't think it will pass VA inspection standards, the porch stairs is rotten and support is broken. 

Depending on the lender and your credit you may be able to do a 15% percent down loan versus the standard investment loan which requires 20% down.