Hello, My wife and I are actively studying and getting our plan together to get into real estate investing.  I was hoping to pick the brains of the folks on this forum and to get some help and critiques on our initial...

Thanks @Darrell Shepherd  & @Andy Collins I spoke to a couple of lawyers & one asked to see the court order before advising me on how to proceed.

Great advise, and it got my mind turning.

I'd have to agree with Doug and advise to avoid it for now.

J Scott thanks your advise is great, I apparently have until tonight to respond and I don't know if I can get a gc to bid by then.Jody Young I didn't know there was minimum acceptance guidelines for a VA loan, can you share a link?

I will contact the tenant one last time to advise that I am issuing the pay or quit notice and will be starting eviction proceedings at the end of this week if they do not resolve the issue (and I will be following through on that).

Be careful that your real estate agent is advising on rents - ask him/her to validate those numbers.Regarding your evaluation, if you purchased at $495k, I calculate negative cash flow and return, even with rents of $4400. 

Seems like it will be a 4-5 month renovation project and our appraiser/realtor advised that we can even list at $560,000 in the future since there is barely any inventory in this area. 

What strategy would you advise to get there as quickly as possible?

I don't know your level of experience with this field, but I just advise you to tread with caution.