I am doing some stuff in a VERY small town (pop. 15,000) but have found 4 potential deals just this week (driving for dollars). 

Why does this pop in my head?

Owner is probably renting the units for what, $600 a pop.

If you are selling 100k houses and were the broker keeping it all at 3,000 a pop you would need to sell about 334 houses in a year or close to 1 a day.

I popped up for a surprise visit and the lawn was severely overgrown and air filters looked like they hadn't been changed in months, so I fired him.  

One thing that pops out is there are no provisions for on-premise manager. 

Type in your  zip code, or the rental  zip code, than youll see a list pop up of close by rescues.

My very first tile job was my kitchen floor - used the wrong mortar and had tiles popping up a few months later.

Money has become a commodity, and as a result, there is huge competition and pressure on pricing.12% COC is a bit high for most markets, we are still buying above a 7 cap for B & C mom and pop properties.

I would be interested to see what MI and OH notes are doing these days.back in the day the bigger players would not even bid on those notes  :)  I don't play in that sand box other than with commercial banks that call me on one off's.. and its has to be a smoking deal for me to knowingly go into a bad situation up front.. that's why I recommend talking to those that do it for a living have their systems in place etc etc.. in my mind small mom and pop investors take a huge risk trying to play the NPN game .. and would be better off finding nice performing notes.. but that's me.