But the enormous tax rates make the property appreciation harmful to landlords.

To add to the comment left by @Lynda Duke about luck, it reminds me of a quote from an all-time favorite book "Would you call a fisherman lucky who for years so studied the habits of the fish that with each changing wind he could cast his nets about them?

@Grant Boney There's always a chance you could get lucky so there's no harm in making him an offer.

Another company can also be the ¨second¨member say a limited partnership because I think there is stuff with the voting rights that makes that beneficial, but this would need to be tailored to each persons sisuation.An idea I have been told if you do good business you will not have to worry about a suit, but there is no harm in planning for a rainy day.

But if it needs that much work I don't know how to approach the pricing.Plans could be to keep it & rent it out and thus benefit from quickly rising house values in the long term as well, or to re-hab it & sell it. 

Flipping is not easy and a lot of mistakes can and likely will be made on your first, and even your 10th so placing your family's or friend's money at risk and losing some of it could do some major harm.

You should contact the tenants immediately because it is sometimes a process to get them out of the habit of paying rent the way they used to.  

I will try and make it a habit to check back here. 

Most business is done somewhere in between.I'm not in the habit of defending PMs because I think a lot of them suck.

I would not be in the habit of paying other people's rent out of my own pocket.