Then their niece and her fiance wanted to rent it and they've been there for 2 years, rather more officially.

She had a deal with the guy she bought it from 6 years ago, but no official contracts although her name is on the deed. 

That will further depress prices.Share this with your government officials.

But, I do have about 10-15k in available credit and could save cash fairly quickly if I needed to.Currently, I've been looking for deals where I could rent out units and leave one occupied by me as my official primary residence to satisfy the VA loan and refinance after a year to rent them all out.

Get it under contract, have the seller sign the memorandum of contract (that might not be the official document title, can't remember), take that down to the courthouse and file it then follow through with all the provisions of the contract on your side. 

Does anyone have any advice as to how I could officially do this so I can get a good estimate on wood would need to be done.

About 5 months ago I officially took the leap on starting my path to building a successful real estate company.

I am so excited to officially be apart of this community and am excited to dive in and learn.

City officials are looking for financial aid options — such as tax breaks or permit fee waivers — and are considering a proposal that would allow owners to pass on half the retrofit costs to tenants through rent increases."

HERE'S WHAT I DID.As soon as I finished with the city clerk, I began making a series of telephone calls to any and every official in my city hall.I call the supervising abatement officer, I did not get any tractionI call my city councilman and his assistant said they will look into it.I called the mayor's office and yelled a lot.I called the city ombudsman and complained.