The market I’m interested in are residential rental and leasing, senior housing, and distressed properties/owners. 

Felt like they wouldn't know how to care for an entire house. 

By hosting open houses?

I recently saw someone turn around a three-family property there by targeting tenents like teachers and nurses.. stable professionals who value quality housing.

The property has 7 acres with a 3/2 main house and a second separate 2/1 house (which also needs renovation) with its own drive.  

For example, I wanted to buy a cheap, off-market hoarder house or fixer-upper under $X.

If you cannot sell the house for close to $150k and have a non-recourse loan, you should analyze if it makes sense to walk away from the property.  

"@ Frank ChinIn this specific instance, it is undeniable that a house was built on that property more than 15 years ago simply based on Google Earth data, but you can see by the county assessor records that the house on the subject property was built in 1950 and then the property encroaching was built over the property line shortly thereafter, in 1951.@ Matt Devincenzo,From the info in your post, the land does not seem to have officially been taken by AP.

This is why you see so many people living in 1 house. 

The house, built in the early 1900s, was outdated and required major renovations.