After consultation with a remediation company that I have used before several times; it was determined that even after cleaning and deodorizing that on some hot July day that the smoke residue trapped in the wall cavities could be re-activated and there could be renewed smoke smell. 

You will probably need to do this multiple times, and you will need to soak the deck brush in a bucket filled with dish soap solution and comb it out with a paintbrush comb to remove the tar residue in the brush bristles between cleanings..

William Bannister is absolutely correct.Here's some examples of tax sale properties that I've seen:bottom of man-made lakeside of cliff 50 feet tallArmy bombing rangeExpired land lease for river front cottage totalled by flood 30 years agoExpired lease for TV tower pre-cable, that was already removed from propertyLand only with building owned by another party who had pre-paid their lease for 30 years, so if you bought you would start collecting rent in 3 decades.super fund toxic waste siteAbandoned gas station with leaking under ground tanksAbandoned steel millhouse with only 3 walls as the rear wall collasped into back yardhouse on city demolistion listStrip of land 2 feet wide, left over from road widening projectLandlocked residual land from highway projectAbandoned QuarryAbandoned junk yard, various colored ground stains from antifreeze, gasoline, oil, automitive fluids and metal parts.Slag pileChromnium factoryAbandoned building filled with 55 gallon drums of unknown liquidsRavinesWetlandsFlood waysDrainage ditchesSite with endangered speciesGarbage dumpHave a nice day!

A balanced mix of continued learning and doing is, like anything in life, the best recipe.My two cents would be: It depends on quite a few variables, some being your character, mindset, goals and where you are at on your journey.Ultimately our goals are passive residual income, not active residual income.

The Rome apartment was clean but had hairs on the pillow, residue in the bathroom etc. 

If you want the tools and just run with it and also buy into the residual income aspect of exp then that could be a fit.

In addition to the credit union (which gives a better mortgage rate and a 2nd mortgage for another 10%, so in total 90% financing), a real estate broker offered a .25% higher rate and only 80%, residual 10% would have to be via PMI.

You have to get TSP residue off the walls before you prime.

Our experience has been that in cases where there has been prolonged smoking by the prior occupants, the only way to rid the most affected areas of the odour and harmful residues accumulated on exposed surfaces is to gut these parts of the property back to the studs.

That could be a limiting factor and we would run that as well.VA will allow a very high debt to income ratio on certain files, but we have a "residual income" calculation that still need to work.So - it depends on the details...