You will not cash flow with these numbers and you'll quickly chip away at your money, and be stuck selling for a loss in the end.Regarding capital preservation.

Some appraisers are very nit picky about paint even if it's the slightest chipping..

You could simply add your own cash to the investment but for most people it means that they will have to take out new deb in order to not have part of the transaction be taxable.Your question was really more about the suitability of a geographic location rather than tax savings but since Damon brought it up I thought I'd chip in.  

No mortgage company will loan on this house with the bad septic system, empty pool or chipping paint so I have confidence I will get a call back.

They won't have time to chat but they are the ones you want in your corner when the chips are down.

Look for chipping paint and dust.

And the bonus is that any added income can help chip away at that loan.

so if you're truly looking at it as a business model you need to factor in the cost savings or "rent you're paying to yourself" - usually while fixing up an otherwise unrentable house (it's amazing what we'll put up with when we're remodeling our own places isn't it).If you ever watch real poker players not the tv actor types they never keep all their chips on the table.  

Otherwise I will keep chipping away at the .pdf version.

You may think the rat issue is separate but they're resenting you for it and don't want to make paying rent easy for you since it's their only bargaining chip.