Consulting with a pest control and mold remediation professional could give you a clearer idea of the potential scope and cost before making a decision.

Find a good property being totally mismanaged - offer to purchase 60% and take operational control selling your property management expertise and future profitability, providing property owner/seller with enough cash to pay off his pressing debts keeping current loan in place. 

just say rent is not being paid, or should i include things like unauthorized pets and damaging property by not having water on since may and sprinkler system disconnected, damage inside property?....

I work  with investors that are staring their investment journey this way and they find that they can get control of a great property for a small down payment.  

I could see a value-play here for monthly financial reporting, if not handled directly through PM systems.

Once you're ready for the next purchase, you will have more experience, systems, and the confidence to tackle a bigger project.

Growing massively! 

Every system you try will have flaws, or you may salivate over a feature that appears in other software.Some familiar names are mentioned frequently: Stessa, Apartments.com, RentRedi, TenantCloud, Innago, RentManager, Avail, Rentec Direct, Doorloop, etc.I recommend conducting thorough research on each app online to understand their offerings, pricing, etc.

Not sure who you could talk into doing this.. you lose all control..

But if you both want to own/control the properties it probably makes more sense to have a legal entity.