Interesting - I have been investing in Philly for 8 years, run a  group of 2500 small landlords, speak at lots of events, know and network with many of the players  . . . but never heard of him before.

Typically  issues are raised when the exterior is not kept up with / parking on grass / garbage in neighborhoods where everyone takes pretty good care of their homes.If you keep it clean and run a tight ship, you should be okay most of the time.

Do I need to run this transaction through my broker since it is not going on the MLS?

As Jay said, company is fine and I've little doubt is doing their best to run their business. 

You really run the risk of bad construction biting you.

But when I quickly run the numbers it doesn’t add up.

Plus, if you ever find yourself thinking about placing deals in markets I know a thing or two about—like Phoenix (my backyard) or Austin—I’ve got connections that could give you a running start.

For context, here's the home https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/943-34th-St-Oakland-CA-94...We bought it as our primary in 2014 for $590k and realized a nice run up in appreciation over the last decade, appraising most recently in 2022 for $1.2m. 

I believe, off the top of my head, it's single digits of rents actually have rent reported to bureaus. 

Mine run themselves.