I have a tenant from hell who will go to any length to prevent access to the property. 

A few old tenants which isn't bad but has some lower quality tenants with ugly ran down homes/trash.

Do the math again (make sure to shop around for a bank with lower fees) and see if there is a solution to increases the value of it in a short time, so you can refinance it later after get a new appraisal after  rehabe....No deal is batter than a bad deal which will stress you out and not worthy of the time and $.  

This may work in your market or it may need to be slightly higher or lower.   

It's lower risk and you will learn a lot more.

Just depends on access with a concrete truck.

Extended vacancies, higher turnover, lower quality tenant pool, etc. 

My husband is in the reserves and has access to VA loan benefits, is anyone familiar with this and know whether or not the VA loan would allow us to purchase an entire duplex rather than just a home?

If both properties have full access on their portion, without a need to utilize the other half, then there is no need for a shared driveway easement/agreement. 

I was speaking with a multi-billion $ institutional investor's COO several weeks ago and they said when they went to Wall Street to raise money, every banker wanted to know how much of their portfolio was based in Atlanta...meaning, Wall Street knows that Atlanta is a very stable and quality location to own in and while return may be lower than other higher risk areas, it is a quality area and top of the bell curve in most return and risk respects.