Looking for some creative advice that hopefully minimizes the tax bite.My business partner and I own two houses free and clear in our LLC.

The original owner has a ton of exemptions so she only pays $400/ year on property taxes.

Starting out, I was pinching any penny I could, so would spend hours and hours measuring and building plans.  

I don't know what labor cost is alone on a full build as I've never done a labor only build.

You have a very short window to build trust and show your credibility to a seller, the handwritten letters do neither of those things.

That has less to do with crime (in the area that I live I don't see it as a big issue) and more to do with taxes and tenant-friendly laws.For any area that is higher crime, you should budget for higher vacancy (and significantly higher vacancy if you don't set tight screening standards and have to evict a tenant) and higher repairs and maintenance.Good luck!

I also included a BiggerPockets article below that you might find helpful and am happy to send more info about building a team if interested.

Here in VA there are a lot of very deep value or abandoned multifamily buildings.

Is the building a single building with rooms for rent or individual units with separate entryways? 

As for pricing, we have seen the same units in the same buildings decrease in rental price by $100 (in CC) but we have also seen a stabilization of pricing over the last 3 months.