I encourage people to post what you are thinking, however, please do not provide answers unless you are certain you are correct or state that you may not be 100% sure as I do not want to be misinformed.

But you are taking a step in the right direction, I cant tell you in just this post how thankful I am of the other investors and their encouragement, tips and advice they have been willing to offer. 

Interactions w current tenant, do i reach out to them?

Hope to interact with you on the site! 

Thanks for the encouragement!

Encourage everyone to keep calling the police and being a loud voice.  

Thank you all for the advice and encouragement I can't wait to tell you all about my first deal!

I need to find (1) a experienced investor to help past this first deal and (2) a great general contractor to assist with ensuring I am properly estimating repair costs.I don't know if I should be encouraged or discouraged by this post and comments regarding the NOVA market.

They're government-backed... the Feds are encouraging rehabs of apartments.Heard about these at our local REIA 2 nights ago.

I would encourage you to look for deals that are so good it doesn't matter how "muddy" they are, those are the deals that are worth getting creative and learning how to do Sub2, hard money, private money, ect...