4-plex with a questionable incentive for a newbie

[Jared Bendetta]

My first time investing in real estate and my sights may be beyond my scope. 

An 8 bedroom, 4 full bath, 6200 sqft. Multi-family (quadplex), was built in 1910 and is located just outside of a main city is listed at $4900. Listed in the property details is "Buyer's responsible for due diligence: all back taxes, assessments, water/sewer, any city violations and both sides of closing costs that may be associated with this property."

I am extremely interested in the property because of the potential I can see for a long term rental property. On the other hand, I am worried about the cost being so low because of all the back taxes and any other legal/financial surprises. Fixing up costs I'm not worried about, just back taxes. Should I keep looking for other potentially better properties or should I pursue this property? Any help or comments would be greatly appreciated, considering I have no clue what I'm doing. Thank you in advance.

[Aaron Montague]

@Jared Bendetta

This is a good exercise in fact finding.  I do agree with @Roy N. that this is probably not a good project for a first time buyer.  BUT it may have simply passed beyond the seasoned investors' radars.  Always look, rarely buy.

Stop into the city/town offices.  They are you best friends in most cases.  They should be able to tell you about most, if not all, liens against the property.  They'll certainly know about back taxes as the taxes are owed to them :)

Drive by the place at several different times of the day/week.  If the neighborhood is quiet on a Friday at 11pm, it will probably be quiet the rest of the week.  This will also give you a feeling of the area.  If you're comfortable there at night, hopefully your tenants will be as well.

An alternate strategy that I could propose: tear it down.  It might be worth more as a buildable lot with sewer and water connections than as a house.  Just make sure you know ALL the liens.  A quality title search should get all of those details.  Tearing down houses is a pretty simple process.

Run your financials just like any other flip.  

Happy Info Hunting!!