It is very important that you do not over-leverage yourself and potentially bite off more than you can chew because the mortgage (principle, interest, taxes, & insurance) & utilities will be significantly increased, but at the same time is also decreasing your risk because you have more tenants paying rent & utilities before it hits your pocket if they stop paying/etc.You are in a great position, especially working towards squaring away your housing expenses for potentially the rest of your life right after college!

However dog stuff can attract rodents.Snacks like chew bones or rawhide or pig ears, open dog food bags or food left out in the bowl, dirty dog bowls especially if you feed wet or raw and leave scraps in the bowl etc are easy food sources for ants, roaches, rodents.If none of this is an issue it's more likely the rats found their way in and are munching on human food or trash and nesting in cabinets, furniture, etc.I can only give an opinion that the property owner should be responsible for making sure the house is properly sealed and safe.

Then, what happens when you have other expenses chewing into the $2k/mo in cashflow (roof, floors, car, college fund, necklace for your wife, etc...). 

I was considering the fact that it is a big chunk to bite off and chew in the east end but my only recourse is that I want to leave nursing and the fact that it may become another full time job is something I'm welcoming.

Lead poisoning is real.. but in order for house paint to be a problem it needs to be either ingested (like a baby or small child chewing on a window sill, or possibly breathed in when old paint is scraped or ground with some kind of sander of grinder.

If they are getting rid of the dog it's a pretty safe bet that they were completely unsuccessful with housetraining and/or other unwanted activity (chewing, etc).

Try not to bite off more than you can chew

My advice to you would be don’t bite more then you can chew on your first deal.

@Kean Chew a basic ARV is the comparable properties sold around the area.

sticky traps are inhumane for a number of reasons - first and foremost they torture the animal that is caught and they die an agonizing death, they chew their limbs off or die of starvation of lack of water....