Failure to pay rent is a pretty clear violation of a lease, even in very pro-tenant states, so after the hassle of the lawsuit, a path is clear to make the property owner whole.

I would confirm the other four owners and would not buy there is they were all the same family, it will just be miserable most likely trying to deal with 4 against 1 (unless they all hate each other).Your second concern is valid and correct.

the market is unforgiving right now, and if you buy a random property by looking on Zillow and turn it over to people you don't know to manage, you'll lose money.with respect to your specific question, if the property is safe, clean, and priced correctly, it will rent. but that doesn't mean you'll make money on it. 

This may be challenging with both of you in full-time W2 jobs, but worth considering if one of you can transition to real estate part-time.Alternatively, the Short-Term Rental (STR) loophole offers another path.

@Dennis Boettjer - everyone's comments above are correct. 

Hey investors, I'm the new Market Intelligence Analyst here at BiggerPockets, and I'm developing a way to predict the future "path of progress" for a given market.

Look for property for sale with the correct zoning or that you can get a variance4.  

@Josie Sandoval, correct, this is very common.

But, you get the piece of mind knowing it’s likely done correctly.

However, I know that I do not want all my income to be reliant on my day job and live to watch my retirement account grow.I am probably doing better than a lot of people my age but am eager to take the correct steps to build a real estate portfolio.