Our returns have diminished since mid 2015 primarily due to vacancies and more recently - repairs.

Tampa has been through the ringer over the past couple of years - from what I understand the rental market has been pretty depressed and the quality of tennant pool has diminished considerably.

Someone told me that the nicer you fix it up the better tenants you'll have, but at some point, that ratio diminishes I would assume. 

But once you narrow down which type of investment works with your needs and finances, the amount of information you need to absorb is greatly diminished.

At that point you would likely need to either rebuild, pay to clear the land, or sell the lot at a diminished price since it would need work to be useable again.

@Jenkins Ramon ,Thanks Jenkins, While we may still continue to buy some tax liens, I think with an improving economic scenario and an improvement in peoples personal finances this activity may diminish for us.

If you are selling in 6 months then you could go ahead and sell all that stuff sitting on your property and let someone else move it.The value when you sell later will most likely be in the land anyways.I would rather sell the stuff off and get cash today than worrying about the tenant doing damage and diminishing personal property I own sitting on the land.

My agent tells me that losses are calculated on three year runs and diminish over that time frame.

An older building with the repairs can wipe out any cash flow for years.If you are investing this kind of money you really need to partner with someone in your area to be your advocate and show you things you do not know to look for.If any utilities are paid by the landlord is a huge one.With inflation coming around the corner utilities could spike and annual rent increases would not follow at the same pace.This would make you have diminishing returns over time.It would be better to have utilities on the tenants paying it as the cost would be paid by them and you preserve your margins.

It sounds like the landlord's health is failing and his ability to manage the property has diminished.