I am leaning on local first for my next investment, but not ruling out an out-of-market opportunity. 

Connect with a realtor, say you want to purchase an investment property. 

There seems to be an endless number of these listed with attractive cap rates.

So, I would be very conservative (for your standpoint) on the researched estimate.I would do what I suggested above, then if the tenant takes you to small claims court you explain to the judge the legislative time restrictions you were under in order to come up with an accurate repair expense.This is yet another example of how "tenant protection" laws, in practice, end up hurting the tenant in the end.

They have received extremely nominal amounts of relief on over 20 houses they’ve researched and comped to get an abatement.

She may be better off selling the house and getting rental assistance on an apartment or rental house that they can continue to co-habitate in. 

Since your rental is currently held in your personal names, transferring it to an LLC before selling could complicate the exchange.

I saw a notice on the door from the city and I tried to get some info on the owner but it looks like an investment company has owned it for several years but no one has been in there.

An IRA would pay a small tax on such unrelated debt-financed income.

I'm currently under contract for a piece of land with an off-grid cabin - doing as a land loan.