It's one of those "I wouldn't live here" type neighborhoods with a lot of run down MFRs and unfriendly looking people hanging out of the building stoops all day.

For example, if, in an 18 hour waking period, you spend 2 hours snooping through the AirBNB, writing down the makes and models of appliances, figuring out the distribution of the mini shampoos and inventorying how many cooking supplies your hosts are providing and the thread count of the sheets, then an auditor might allow you to take 10% of your total trip expenses as a deduction.If, however, in an 18 hour waking period, you spend 6-8 hours per day interviewing Hosts, researching which properties would make good AirBNBs, researching the local laws, touring properties, meeting with an agent and vigorously pursuing your next acquisition, you'd have a MUCH better case for writing off your travel expenses (but probably not your lift tickets and equipment rental).If, on the other hand, you are traveling and on vacation and just hang out in your AirBNB without actually performing any activities, then the odds that an auditor will allow any deduction at all is pretty minimal.In any audit, it would be up to you to document the business purpose of your trip.  

I guess my question is whether there is good way to figure out who the owner of the property is since it's empty and not on the market.Another possible option is a distressed property, with a rehabbed interior and a sad exterior/ roof/ yard on Byrom St that has been on the market for 4 months with price drops, and up until last week had a giant tree hanging over it which was just removed.

This suggests that they are going to hang on to the tradeline on the books and service it themselves.

Lights were hanging by threads or sputtering. 

Without that hanging over your head, you'll be able to be more aggressive in your real estate purchases later.

OR hang tight for many years, raise rents when or if I can and use my other rental property cashflow to weather CapEx expenses. 

Before I did that I'd explore hanging on for 6 more months. 

But after remodeling, decided to hang on to it as a rental property.

I have funds for a down payment, but decide to borrow the downpayment and hang on to my own funds as a reserve fund.