Got a call from the tenants mother on Tuesday morning - she said her son (my tenant) was shot nine times this past Saturday & is in intensive care, surgeries, etc. 

If you read all of this I'd really appreciate some candid feedback.I live in Snohomish County, I'm a Navy Veteran, have a stable W-2 making about 80K/yr after taxes, and have a modest amount in savings.

You are taking over for someone who didn't care at all about the rules and you want the city to just be like, "yeah, this is fine"?

Now, if you listen carefully you will find that he too found some of the same things that others mentioned...no deals in Austin, prices were too high...but then he adjusted his approach and nailed it!

-- We focus on verifying 2-year work history and verifying rent payments with last 2 landlords (unless in same property for 5+ years).3) MoveIn Specials: be careful with offering "free rent" as will just attract tenants with no cash.-- Try free TV or something else worth 25-50% of one month of rent.-- Or, what we do is offer the free rent AFTER & ONLY if they pay their first 3 months of rent on time to earn it.4) Lower the rent 5% every 2-4 weeks until activity picks up.5) Understand this is the worst time of year to find tenants.-- Starts picking back up end of February when this tenant pool starts getting their income tax refunds and aren't broke anymore.6) Section 8: where is the property being advertised?

I've been listening to a lot of the podcast episodes and have been doing some reading as well.I'm very happy to get general input and advice, but I also have a few specific questions.- I've read about A, B, C, and D class properties. 

I would encourage you to read this beginners guide from BiggerPockets, it's a good bit of information so pick and choose what you want to read or read it all.

I am not sure if that is the case, but that's how it read and why @Nicholas L. said that. 

If you make the person an LLC employee you can get around it, but partner does need to be careful. 

After reading your post, it makes me want to try it on my own first.