Loans become more difficult to obtain, for the simple reason that the interest rate is a factor when it comes to approving mortgage loans – just study the formula of monthly income compared to the mortgage payment because lenders use your debt-to-income ratio to figure out how much of a loan payment you can handle.

Would a Quadplex sold for $700,000 under these circumstances hurt the value and potential equity of a triplex that was purchased, fully vacant, for $650,000, 1 year prior?

The examples I read about don’t compare to the prices I’m seeing around here.

The plaintiff's attorney ask one of my employees if they know where the prior owner went, as they couldn't find him.

And then if you get a commercial loan, you might be able to do the appraisal as income approach, instead of comparable sales (I don't know for sure)

If any of the utilities require an inspection or any repairs do to their inspection you are out of luck as HUD allows no repairs prior to closing .  

It could be that the prior buyers just got cold feet. 

Depending on the amount of time you have to spend on managing the tenants and dealing with finding new qualified tenants you may want to at least compare the costs of hiring a Property Manager.

Jacob Henderson your capex/repairs seems high compared to the income you would be getting (even looking at income coming from both sides).

Its almost borderline ridiculous when you compare the availability and quality of homes on the market from 2015-2017 to today, some may even get frustrated.