Scabbed together quadplex grew from a single family, Toledo Ohio

[Jason Richey]

I am looking at a deal on a quadplex that has been scabbed together over the past hundred or so years. It's got three units rented, 2 @ 400 + 1 @ 360 with the 4th unit vacant. The seller is asking $80,000.

The carpets are old, the lead paint is peeling, the mold is taking over the bathrooms, the main boiler and radiator plumbing needs to be removed but has already been replaced by electrical baseboard and wall mounted radiators. The units all have electric hot water tanks that are wired to their respective units allegedly. The basement looks like something out of a horror movie, complete with knock down brick walls, dirt floors, and literal tree trunks used as floor joists for the first floor. Oh, and the second floor apartment has a walkout balcony that doubles as a rear entrance / exit in addition to the roof of the first floor.

Not knowing much about estimating rehab costs, I would ball park it at a $30,000 renovation minimum. With all four units rented my back-of-the-napkin math indicates it should cash flow about $800 as is while paying $800 for insurance taxes and mortgage

Am I a fool for even considering this? By all rights it sounds like a terrible idea everywhere except the money which is so intoxicating because I believe I can update the units and get significantly better rent out of them closer to the tune of $600 to $700 a month bringing this up to a 3% or better deal