Hence potential pool of tenants might increase causing more demand for rental property and hence rents would increase correct?

I have come across a seller in my local area that has a portfolio of 5 properties that he needs to sell in a divorce settlement but I am really only interested in one of the properties which are two duplexes that are on the same lot.

Expectations would be making your offers more in-line with current market.The deal you gave in the example, you were willing to go to $235K and seller would do it at $244K, so $9K difference.

A Seller owes 8k in HOA fees, is there anyway that I can negotiate that so I can purchase the property at a better price?

So anything not expected to last a minimum of 5 years is included in the Rehab.For Vacancy I can care less how low a Seller or market average is.  

I'd recommend as @Theo Hicks said to stick to a weekly report from your PM and then calls on as needed basis.Before you jump into this investment, ensure that the numbers work and the overall investment makes sense = low vacancy, demand is high, town population is on the rise, jobs are available and accessible, etc.Best of luck!

We both have pretty demanding jobs, so a highly involved project might be out of scope for us but I won’t rule out fix and flip and BRRR.

Market to private home sellers. 

Here some interesting info and numbers about the project.Acquired: Feb 2018Rehab - 2 - 3 months.Listed - May 2018Sold - Sep 2018Purchased - $115,000Financed - $110kRehab - $63k (investor contributoin.Sale Price: $224,900 with seller contribution $6kAfter all expenses Final Profit - $21k  - 33% Highlights - Removed big pool and created big back yard, did major foundation repair to get to tolerance level, removed walls to make the kitchen open, all new flooring, new roof, new appliances and whole shebang. 

It would be odd/silly for this contingency to run all the way up until the closing date, but I don’t know how you guys do things there.At the least, I’d communicate with the sellers letting them know the sale of your house has fallen through and it seems highly unlikely you’d procure another buyer and close by your contract date....doing a mutual release now would be beneficial to the seller so they can get their house back on the market.