In 5-10 years when millennials start making families, there will be even higher demand for good homes in good school districts.- 25K in cash from your equity does not give you enough 20% downpayment to buy anything better as a rental around here

The spirit of my criteria is to keep from ending up with a menagerie of animals being moved in damaging my property.

They are a different animal.  

If you have a crazy demanding career then bump up to the B properties that will need less of your time.I don't have a hard money lender for you. 

Over the last 2 years the 2nd mortgage holder had given approval many times and waited patiently for the first to approve.Now that the first has approved the sale, the 2nd, Ocwen, wrote off the debt and sent it to a collection agency.The collection agency will not budge on their payoff amount demands which is 3x higher than Ocwen would have accepted, and the primary mortgage will not meet those demands.Is there anything that I can do to get this deal completed, or is it just dead?

Start there then move forward to look at what rental rates and demand are like for vacation rentals there.

This has all the makings of a catastrophe, and people are too worried about being politically correct to demand travel limits. 

I KNOW there is plenty of demand for well located quality homes on the peninsula and thus that is where I focus.  

Some can't balance the budget anyways.GA is mostly a NON-JUDICIAL state meaning there is a power of sale clause in the mortgage docs allowing the lender to give a default notice and demand letter followed by notice in the local legal organ (newspaper) for 4 weeks with the foreclosure date set.Judicial in GA is hardly ever used except for title clearing and other oddball issues not usually seen. 

Prices will always be driven by demand and supply.