I have been comparing expenses between my apartments in Berwyn and my apartments in South Bend, Indiana, and I am finding that the lower end units in South Bend are using up a much, much larger percentage of rents collected than my Berwyn properties.

The VA loan will provide a cheaper entry and lower rate.  

Normally, online advertising has been all we needed to get the word out (to non-seniors) but I'm getting a lower than normal volume of calls. 

I wouldn't get too excited about this one, since there are currently 16 duplexes in the neighborhood listed for a lower price.

Hello BP,
Put in an offer on a place. Purchase price is 125k. but it's definitely in need of serious renovations. Comps in the area are for 160k. The as is value is more than likely 125k. The maximum offer I can ...

This problem is..I live in the DFW area and the market has pushed prices up rather high, along with increased demand which makes it harder to sweet talk sellers into selling at a lower than market price. 

At the very least try to buy in a B class area because the combination of remote, small, lower class tenant demographics is going to be killer.

Zillow is clueless with duplex.The upper cap is SFH but how lower should a duplex be when comparing with a comparable specs SFH?

If you measure the totality of your investment, mean cash flow, debt reduction, appreciation, rent growth etc you will always make more money in the areas of high demand like DC, Boston, Seattle etc than you will make in a pure cash flow market like you will in the mid west.There is always the possibility of your rate going higher, but thats the trade off of a lower rate with the arm.

Because they will lose out on tax revenue, since you got the house for lower than it it is currently assessed at you can fight your taxes and get them lowered.