You can find videos/articles online on how to get the basement dry, but the basic process is: 1) turn off all electric to the basement (to avoid electrocution from the water), 2) run pumps to get the standing water out of the basement (sounds like you're already doing this)3) remove all furniture and items from the basement,4) once you've pumped out the standing water from the basement, rent a wet/dry carpet cleaner/extractor from home depot, and use it to extract as much water as possible from the carpets (they'll be much lighter and easier to move once you get the water out). 5) After you've used the carpet extractor to get most of the water out of the carpet, remove all carpet and get it out of the house for drying (if you're trying to salvage the carpets), or throw the carpet out.

Client doesn't want to, we move on.

I've also learned to have a healthy level of skepticism when someone is TOO eager to move fwd quickly after/during a first meeting.

Given your experience with Travelers are you still with them or have you moved on?

I need to move fast as some of these properties come from an offmarket seller.I need to increase my portfolio of SFH homes.

@Vamsee Lella did you move forward with a GC?

No.I  would move ASAP. 

We like parks that have bigger yards so there is room to move around.

You have to talk with your mortgage providers to see if they are allowing you to move them to an LLC.In rental is good to have an LLC for liability however for taxes there isn't a big difference in small investments.Your credit report won't show the mortgage anymore but you still have the liability in your history.

Find a hard money lender where the terms work for your deal, and don't tell them that you intend to move into it after renovations are complete?