Last month they told me the air conditioner wasn't working well so that day I sent my guy over and the next day it was replaced.

Better to know this up front, so you don't buy a problem house.I have a funny (to us) story: we bought our first house in England, while stationed over there with the Air Force. 

His dream was to be an airline pilot, so he took General Studies in college and Air Force ROTC.  

I'm in Colorado Springs and this particular flood plane is nowhere near a burn scar or anything to make me think flooding will be bad and I'm not even sure why this flood plane is there.So my question is this, do you think landscaping measures can eliminate my need to insure for the severe flood plane and allow me to insure for the lesser of the two evils?

You can site the entry reason as a abandonment, inspection, change air filters, etc. 

Inverness is a up and coming area that is still underpriced .. but there are not a huge amount of duplexes there .. watch spring hill area for sink holes also ..i myself am not afraid of sink hole properties if tgey have been cleared by the proper people , if i was buying them to rent or live in .. there has only been one case that i can remember in the last 20 yrs where someone died from a collapse .. that being said .. i would not want that to happen to me ..not a good way to go .. but then again what is ?

Even 2-4 units and employing an aggressive air bnb strategy, produces very tight numbers.

. ;) I had the chance to go to Anchorage, AK while in the Air Force Reserve and it is beautiful.

Most of the investors that I know who have purchased multi-unit buildings convert the units into forced air (furance) where each apartment has its own furnace, hot water tank, and central air unit.

Our initial time frame of 6 months went in a snap and 1/2 of the landscape and exterior finishes couldn't be completed in winter so it dragged on till spring. ( we took out a in ground pool ).