For more info on Cleveland you'll want to read The Ultimate Guide to Grading Cleveland Neighborhoods.

Was given the contact info for:American Money Loan Services and the person’s name, Tom Vanderlaan.

Again, this is only based on info you provided so there could be a lot more to the story for the good or bad but I can only comment on what was provided. not sure many are thinking rates are going to drop much in the next year.. seems like one would want to know how much they need to drop to see if the plan will work before putting good money after bad.

The saving grace is that it was purchased cheap a long time ago and will still either cash flow or yield equity even after repair costs

Eliminate debt, establish a budget, and save.

If you paid under $230k, you’d save $30k in federal capital gains taxes and maybe another $15k or more in state income taxes.

You didn't save 40% you spent X that could have been used for marketing or growing your business

this could very well be another option to save money in interest etc. 

They tell you you’re asking too much rent (you lower rent, avoid vacancy and make more money) ,your marketing is bad (they take new pictures, advertise in different places, change wording, whatever, and get a tenant saving vacancy.)  

I did not do a separate criminal background check as I trusted the info from Zillow (Big lesson learned never to trust the Zillow data again in life).