Definitely fix the water and mold now or it could be a way more expensive issue later, and you don't want city people and permits and legal/local governement stuff involved.

See below:The problem though is that Chicagoland has high property taxes and corrupt government (which will further result in higher property taxes and lower cashflow).

;)https://homes.yahoo.com/news/experts-rent-control-causes-more-problems-solves-181219436.htmlRising rents nationwide are causing rent control to gain traction — but not among economists, real estate analysts and other housing experts.A whopping 63 percent of experts surveyed for the Zillow Home Price Expectations Survey (ZHPE) said rent control ordinances are “government intrusions into the marketplace that, however well-intentioned, always create more problems than they solve.”It’s unusual for such a large group to agree on a single answer, according to Terry Loebs, founder of Pulsenomics LLC, which developed the Zillow-sponsored survey.

As it turns out (which they never told me), that tenant backed out and they apparently then applied for Section 8 and now have a renter in place paying $980 ($127 of which she pays and $857 of which the housing authority pays) and supposedly there is some government program that is making up the difference (I have yet to see any documentation on this).

In the motel example, the investor is a liquid multimillionaire cash investor but he didn't know that Dodd-Frank now governed the private mortgages he's been writing and didn't know we could cost segregate the motel/restaurant for instant increases in cash flow. 

Will the government take their house?

The issue here is that the US government does not want money flowing from your deal back to a foreign country where it cannot be taxed.  

the big issues there........ the government is corrupt as hell. especially in the muskegon heights area. my brother has had no end of trouble with these people. also, other areas of muskegon, such as the city, they hire out their inspections process to a place called safebuilt. these people are worse than the government over there. my brother sells a lot of his houses on land contract. these people simply refuse to accept this as a sale and call his houses rentals. they claim this gives them the right to issue him tickets for repairs needed because he is the " current owner of record". they use a portion of the government system that is outdated and has inaccurate records to claim he is the owner. consequently, he winds up in court all the time with new " violations" on these " rental houses" that he has full proof that he sold years ago. as of yet, he has be able to beat them in court just by proving that he no longer owns them, but he is going to court almost every week with them. i believe they hope he will just give up and pay the fines. that is not gonna happen with him......lol. but, just so you are informed, muskegon may appear to be a good place to invest, but you will have serious hurdles to jump over on a regular basis. 

The question is way too broad.A tax LIEN is essentially an IOU that you are buying from the government. 

The by-laws will give you an idea of the property governance.