It's made clear to me that I need to look further into the situation and find out the root cause. 

Most people have with an hour of there home a city like this but it has many things that appear as red flags, is there potential for new investors to succeed?  

I'm basically banking on any of the 3 units to move at some point and then I'll be solidly in the red.

Apparently, some of the kitchen cabinets don’t have doors; the water heater was actually red-tagged (need proper venting) and the PM feels the steep driveway is a big deterrent.

We were so cool when we could point our Palm 7s at people and infra red contacts to each other weren't we!

There are a ton of decent options in Dorchester (five Red Line MBTA stops) and while I've been in that one foreclosure that Charlie mentioned and it is a wreck, you can get plenty of places that still have positive cash flow.David

I wonder if this will work or if there's any unforeseen issues or things that would be red flags to a lender come time to refinance.

Other FPE panels should probably be replaced too, but aren’t ‘red flagged’.

@Tonya Thompson There are too many things that raise a red flags, no paperwork up front, no real estate agent, no title company/attorney, closing at a restaurant, seller financing on an REO. 

Going back to my Marine Corps roots, I spoke with an old marine buddy of mine who suggested scoping out his (and my former) neck of the woods - Onslow County, Camp Lejeune, Stone Bay, Swansboro, Hubert, Richlands, Surf City, Topsail and the southern Outer Banks.