Quote from @Nathan Gesner: Unkempt lawns, trashy or broken down vehicles, mattresses and trash on empty lots, boarded up houses, bars on windows, dealers and hookers on the corners, the lack of stores or gas stations, occupied properties are dilapidated, etc.Or when Google maps shows stuff like this: Bro, take my front yard off the internet.

My bet is you do not get sued.  

I bet you could make little to no money in 20 hours a week.

I have not been able to find any in person networking events in my area doing a basic internet search.

It isn't impossible but as @Jimmy Lieu mentioned, there is a steep learning curve.Depending on your liquidity, out-of-state buy & hold rentals could be your best bet if NYC investing is out of the picture.

I work a lot with investors outside of the US from a tax perspective but from a mortgage perspective, as mentioned above hard money or DSCR is probably your best bet.

What we really need is a single internet "bad tenant" list to warn each other.

But I saw it on the Internet; it must be true.......

If you cannot prove income then our rental DSCR loan will be your best bet. 

I would bet the older homes will see a lot more appreciation than the newer homes, percentage wise.