There is also the Dollar house program that allows givernment agencies to purchase homes for $1 and sell or use them for government purposes. 

Please make sure you contact the government agency and not any of the ads that show up. 

Hello Hardeek welcome to the D.This is first I've heard of COTS "managing" properties,but hey I guess it was bound to happen to fill the gap.My experience  with COTS in past was same as any other shelter or temp housing type agency, great resource for pool of potential tenants but you still MUST SCREEN everyone and have a process (or your prop mgr) that screens out the headaches.Be careful not to buy someone else's headache,unless that's your goal of course.Invest wisely.

As I continue to look at property listings, one thing that I always struggle with is establishing the fine line between "needs rehab" vs just stylistically different than my (and 'mainstream') tastes.For example, I see a lot of properties that are advertised as 'move-in ready' but the pictures show very outdated styles like oak cabinets, oak trim, brass fixtures, etc.

I am currently working at another federal agency while going thru the background check process which should be completed around April or May 2018.

If the home is not in the MLS, have your agent contact directly (it's called a dual-agency transaction), or you can do it without an agent if you want.And then ultimately if no properties work, like Joe said, search in another market.

I would certainly call a housing agency and ask to be put on their lists and be willing to take sec 8.

The only risk factor would be if there is a balloon after 2 years on the agency debt, you may need to refinance the whole thing and there could be risk there. 

You local bank may have notary service for free and the auto title agencies have a notary service that you must pay for. 

I have a bachelor's degree in Marketing and I've worked for an ad agency full-time for 4 years creating, managing and optimizing Adwords campaigns all-day long.