I’m new to this and want to focus on the natural pitfalls of property management so I can grow processes to help the people and thus business succeed.

Any potential pitfalls in doing that?

Can anyone here provide insight as to what to look for when buying a pre-stabilized property. what are the general rules of thumb to follow and pitfalls to avoid. 

What steps should I take and what pitfalls should I avoid.

What I say to clients is to advise them of the tricks and pitfalls in the foreclosure space and tell them if they go that route they won't really need me anyway. 

All gurus give some bad advice or at the very least advice that lacks the big picture explaining the pitfalls and the forks in the road ahead.

Both of these can have pitfalls.

There are way too many pitfalls that I don't know where to start.

There are a ton of pitfalls to this approach, most notably tenants never fixing small things, like a tiny leak, that could bring on massive problems if not repaired.

There are many pitfalls as have been mentioned.Another thing to check is the county or city it is located in has a statute on the books where utilities survive the foreclosure process.I my state of Georgia some counties have it where water liens and garbage and waste survive foreclosure and will not be wiped out.Some of these lien amounts are substantial at over 100k.Also remember that property taxes survive foreclosure as well.Those liens would be superior to yours.The IRS has a legal claim to property they are owed taxes on and you have to wait 120 days afterword for their lien interest to expire.So if there is a lien from the IRS do not do any work to the property until there interest expires as they only have to compensate you for the value at foreclosure and costs and not improvements since that time to redeem the property.You would need to approach the owner in advance and see if the want to even own the property.If they are very adament about fighting to the end you might want to look at other notes unless there is tremendous upside.They might however just want a 1099 and the current lien holder isn't cooperating.