I took too many write offs in 16 to qualify for anything this year, but with our increased income and decreased write offs in 17, our net income will be substantially more.

The lease includes a clause that allows us to annually increase the monthly rent by the amount of annual increase of property taxes.

I don't know about increasing the rent due to the garage or we might be too high.   

One of remaining units is coming up for renewal and I am doing a rent increase of $50.00 and I will rent the other two for the market rents ($75.00 higher then previously rented for).  

This house should appraise for right around asking price but I think if we go in and treat it like a long term flip basically, value may increase to 150k or 160k.

I do it in the bay area of California and increased my monthly gross 35% over my long term tenant. 

So property management, dealing with rents in some capacity, being a floor manager in college, showing an lease on a room you rent out in your current home...anything along those lines to show you have experience of SOME nature will be required when purchasing a multi-unit property with a VA loan. 

One of the charms of living in a small town is being near nature and having a close knit community.

So would the increased risk diversification be worth all the cons?

Smaller flips, time in and out in 1-2 months, will be more profitable over time and allow you to keep quality contractors continuously employed.Spending more on hiring more contractors will effect bottom line on one flip but enables you to do more flips in same time period increasing over all profits.