I've found that tenants that don't intend on paying rent frequently butter you up, and try to get friendly with you, OR...they start talking about capital improvements to the place...It's a tactic to make you think they care about you or the property, so that you are less inclined to start an eviction against them. 

Jerome Ave rezoning was just approved a month ago or so and word has it the Kingsbridge Armory renovation is about to be approved as well. 2 familys are great bc the bronx still have relatively low prices compared to the rest of NYC but rents are still HIGH so if you have a rented unit....the monthly mortgage burden is not that bad. we bought our house for 390k 3 years ago and in total we needed about 17k cash from offer to closing. the vast majority of that was just the 3.5 down payment. i negotiated to have the seller pay our closing costs and again no real estate agents were used. best of luck in your search. 

I would video a walk through of the house showing the 20 major components of a rehab and place that video link on Craigslist.

If so, it seems like they are not marketing to the vast majority of potential buyers (because even these big players have <20% market share in any given market).

Beginning out with no money, an bankruptcy and poor credit is a major up hill battle.

That raises a red flag for me suggesting that it might need a major rehab, need to be torn down, be in commercial zoning etc.

I am finding it very diffcult to locate since the majority of networking events are on weeek days.

Do you have any tips on how to maximize the appraisal value without major construction.

Since you have purchased real estate before, you will notice it is nearly identical to the contract your realtor uses.I took the completed contract as well as the earnest money deposit to a title company who did the majority of the work.

Major fixes from inspection are 1) New roof, 2) New HVAC 3) Repair fireplaces 4) Water Heater.