Loopnet any deal older than 12 months, Tax GIS consistently late or 6 months past due, any property that changed hands thru probate after 12 months, Texas property tax sales land only not at auction just offlist properties, etc7.  

If you go through with the purchase make sure that the security deposits are transferred over to you at closing!

Transfer Taxes 10. 

I wanted to make this my first project to get my hands dirty.

It can be hand written with the terms that both parties are agreeing to.

For example, when something unexpected comes up and your costs risk getting out of hand, you might change the scope of work a little.

They started trading hand written IOUs for food.

The plumber will likely have to cut open the ceiling to confirm and make repairs, so you can save a little money by learning how to do that yourself, confirm the problem, and then call the plumber for repair, then patch the ceiling yourself.As Jonathan is trying to point out, it's important to expect these things and have funds on hand to deal with them.

Have you hand walked info and talked to all the people in the community? 

We had an investment group willing to come in and zero-lot line a dilapidated apartment complex in Corvallis and give the tenants the opportunity to buy to help solve our affordability crisis here, but nonetheless, the city forced their hand by needing a half-street development after changing zoning that killed the deal.