I know that they may be owned by the homeowner, but you have responsibility if they are not up to code and if the owner leaves you got the unit.

Sounds like a great strategy ... what zip codes are you investing in again?

Be sure to make sure your contract complies with civil code 1695, super important in CA. 

Under the Internal Revenue Code, repairs, renovations, and general maintenance of your personal residence are nondeductible personal expenditures""For work on a personal piece of real estate to have any tax value, it must add to the property's value or prolong its life.

Sometimes historic properties can allow you to claim tax credits while renovating.If the value is significantly affected, you should talk to your attorney about suing the seller for non-disclosure / fraud and damages, especially if there are written documents from the seller that the home is not historic / governed by special codes and you can prove they knew it had restrictions.

Every zip code has a different housing allowance so go to http://www.defensetravel.dod.mil/site/bahCalc.cfm to check what the BAH is near Ft.

Our plan is to send out 200-500 letters by the end of the week targeting these three groups in our 1-zip code farm.  

To take it a step further you can research zip code demographics, local crime data, schools and education, and job growth.

I would then find my own tenants and collect first, last, deposit whatever the state code allows.

By mid November we received a letter from landlord tenant court notifying us that the property management is taking us to court for non payment of oct rent, now mind you in pa if license and inspections deemed a property not up to code the rent cannot be collected while in violation of said codes, they were not up to code by November either, so any who we went to court showed them our evidence and explained why we were not continuing on to live there, the ruling was withdrawn without prejudice?