certain dog breeds are inherently violent just as certain human breeds are inherently violent  #SARCASM99% of people raise their dogs like family.

I think the key to all of this is to be as certain as possible that their are no known heirs to the property.

This stuff happens all over still, where as certain locations have difficult tenants regardless.

If I can show a judge my attempt to act in good faith by ascertaining and documenting the property which has monetary value or a reasonable person would believe sentimental value to the former occupant, and keep good records despite delegating the transfers and storage to my contractor, I've taken reasonable steps to be a good steward of their stuff. 

(Does he have a clear background check)I guess I'm not immediately dismissing the guy but it does raise some extra questions.How would you ascertain the honesty of the answers to these questions?  

I start with a telephone conversation to ascertain their needs to see if they are compatible with mine.

This isn't to difficult to ascertain if you have access to CoStar or know a commercial real estate broker in the local marketplace willing to share some comps with you.The owner financing aspect to this proposed transaction is attractive, particularly the ability to leverage the down payment as you described.

It varies as certain PM companies only manage in specific areas

It also matters if you are trying to do a 1031 exchange or not as certain timelines have to be met.Hope it helps.

So it's probably important to ascertain why this is happening over and over.