Quadplex - needs work - is it a buy?

[Luke Laczak]

Hello, first time posting on BP, but have been listening and a frequent purveyor of the site for about a year.  

My wife and I are new to real estate - bought our first property a month ago (Will post if it is a success, as it is a condo, and that seems to be a controversial investing option for most). 

Here's our current question:

We live in small little town in upstate NY, about 20 minutes from a Syracuse.  I utilized a bigger pockets tactic that I learned and called a landlord who had posted about an apartment on craigslist and stated that we were interested in possibly purchasing it. Its walking distance from our house, a quadplex( two 2 bedrooms and two 1 bedrooms), something that would be easy to manage, etc. 

Met with the guy who owns it and here are the issues:

1.  The owner doesn't seem to be doing a very good job keeping it rented - 3 of the units are unrented and currently being "remodeled" though I don't know how long they have been like that.  

2.  He's behind on his taxes, water, etc - the county website reports it's currently at about 14.5K. He hasn't paid anything the past 2 years.

3. The floor joists in the small section of the house that has a basement are definitely rotted and need replacing. It's damp - needs a dehumidifer, etc. It probably needs about 20k in repairs, etc. 

4. It should gross 2000 a month in rents when up and running...

5. My gut says stay away, but maybe at the right price... He wouldn't tell me how much he wanted for it, instead asked me what I thought I would be interested in paying. He wouldn't show me two of the units, so I said I had to see the other two before I could make an offer.

I'm nervous about the back taxes and how to handle that, how it would affect financing. I could also pay cash for the property.  He seems a bit shady.  Any advice would be great!

Thanks

Luke