We've sold over a dozen houses to NACA buyers (it was our secret selling weapon for a couple years when we knew many of the NACA real estate agents very well)...The program is for real, despite it sounding too good to be true.

I applaud your efforts for finding the 203K loan and think it's the right fit for you.  

In more seriousness, I would recommend the following (some of this might be overkill for an 8-unit building, but if this is your first multi-family, better safe than sorry):-  First, do all the stuff that won't require a lot of effort on the part of the seller (since you don't yet have a contract, they won't be motivated to spend a lot of time working with you at this point).  

NO..... it is not worth the effort

I'd also look at the longer term hold plays around the revitalization efforts of downtown and the Marina District.

In our experience about half of them get forwarded on and half we file away to show that we made a good faith effort.

So you can focus your efforts on one or two at a time.

LOL sorry, we don't have any trade secret that's ground breaking. 

There are ZERO secrets in this business. 

Now we know the secret and peaceful Beauty of the fall and spring with locals abound.