Of course, I had learned to play by the rules a little better by then. :)

I inherited the home I had been living in from my mother which needs some repairs in order to be rental ready- no mortgage on it.

I'm looking for an answer on this as well. 

She is applying with her boyfriend who is under 18 and has been emancipated from his parents. 

How does this sound:      ??

This includes hiring an inspector to check for structural problems, arranging for a pest inspection, and getting a professional appraisal to ensure the property's value matches the bank's asking price.

She was overwhelmed and needed help, so we stepped in to take care of everything for her.What made this deal different was the level of support we provided.

Are you generally seeing cash flow positive deals from day 1?

For the bankruptcy properties, we contacted the trustee phone numbers on the website, however, they usually just replied to ask us to look for debtor's attorney.For short-sales, we searched the listing on zillow.com, but majority of them are off market.We used BP recommended realtor and asked if they can help with the properties we targeted, the realtor searched for a week of the foreclosure ones and get back to me that she believes she will not be the right partner.

This is a good post on understanding KC neighborhoods: https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/48/topics/1055135-under...This one is also worth looking at, although it's a bit old:https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/48/topics/276800-kansas...