Last thing, forget the classical causation for appreciation and think about this, if you can buy several properties in one community/neighborhood and restore them and place families in them, by creating the right kind of density in the neighborhood, the value right around your homes will rise. 

I will take it all into consideration.

The moratorium resulted in a new identified risk so rents had to rise to compensate for increased risk level.  

An important consideration in whether to perform the rehab work yourself is how much time are you losing by doing the renovations yourself versus hiring it out. 

I'll definitely take this all into consideration.

Interesting article from Redfin this morning…Homebuyer demand is rising as mortgage rates continue to decline, according to a new Redfin report.

Would they not take them into consideration with 6+ months of expenses?

I can also appreciate their concern especially if a considerable amount of their resources are dedicated to your properties like large multifamily as someone else mentioned.  

Days on market continue to rise, now looking at an almost 400% increase since April.  

Valid points...I think we can accomplish the rehab for considerably less than 30k...I  plan  on handling that personally .I especially appreciate your thought on the ARV value confirmation as well...if thats not correct the whole deal is a no go.