The low initial investment and high resale value made it an attractive opportunity.

Attractive to some, a turn off to others.

From what I hear, that's a pretty thriving real estate market and attractive place for young working professionals, which sounds a lot like Denver where we are.

Clean it up, put on a fresh coat of paint, and list it on the MLS to attract tons of buyers, including retail buyers!

Larger holding are able to afford and attract more competent, more interested, and more attuned management.  

Maye invest some money into improving the property to attract better tenants?

Small multi family is generally the most attractive asset class for out of state investors here as it provides a nice balance of cash flow with reasonable purchase price

If a single deal works out at this scale, the family has problems like estate tax transfer limits ($13M per child) to think through.Further, as long as the funds/deals are separate from one another, the one that does go well instantly makes the syndicator an "expert" in that specific strategy or market, which then attracts the next 500K social media followers. 

It’s not as hard as you think and if this Amtrak attracts more people to Scranton, not only will they not want to live in an old run down house but they’ll likely have the money to rent or buy something newer.

Perhaps emptying it so that it can attract an owner occupied buyer is a good alternative or hiring a PM company to off load some of the work there for you.