So I help folks fix their busted up credit on a fairly regular basis, I have a go-to credit fixer company that I'll use if I can't figure it out, bla bla bla.The truth is that FICO treats its exact algorithms as a trade secret.

I would still look at real estate the same meaning not worth my time or effort to even look into it.

I just don't want to direct my efforts the wrong way and put my family in a worse off position.

I would not put to much thought and effort into this.

While it took us a lot of effort on the front end to get a bank to play ball, now they've funded over $500k of deals and will underwrite more and more as we grow. 

It's a lot of time and effort involved but a lot of BP-ers are successful with it.   

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