We figured that chances were very low of encountering a burned down condo or one with extreme structural issues.

Also, for C- areas you should be getting 1.5%+. 1% does not build in enough reward for the risk and hassles you'll encounter with tenants and property maintenance (they're mainly all older homes with varying degrees of deferred maintenance).

Has anyone encountered this? 

While your not likely to encounter a lot of damages on a new home, it can happen and you never know if it's a cheap water heater or a major pipe burst.

You and @Paul Sian share sentiments of the sticker shock aspect of Northside it seems.  

Thank you guys for all of the replies and help I'm not going to let this hinder me I was more so wondering what other people have done in this situation or have encountered it before.

At a sticker price of around 20k it would take me about 10 years to make the money back.... so still not worth it even for the primary res.

What are the typical issues that you've encountered and how do you avoid it? 

Always do a title search, watch out for properties that have been TD numerous times and also filtered through large hedge funds, I recently encountered a nice 2.61 acre piece in a rural area I was going to buy from owner before it went back to the auction.

I dot my I's and cross my T's, as I encounter many things for the first time.