I did have the building painted - and made sure it was cleaned up.

I keep hearing bits and pieces about a rental strategy that is best called "Renting to the Disabled by the Room for Above Market Rent" that goes something like this: (1) Buy a house with as many legal bedrooms as you can that still has a decent sized common area, (2) rent it out to the relatively high functioning disabled crowd, (3) via some [unnamed] Government program the State pays above market rents for each of the tenets. (4) Send a house keeper 1-2 times per week to ensure the place stays clean and otherwise make sure there are no issues.The up side is: you get above market rent with a much higher than average tenant count.

Regarding the high cost of the abatement process, my understanding is that it is mostly labor for the intense cleaning they need to do after the abatement.

Now, I don’t know Cleveland or your area, but Malcom Gladwell wrote a bit on tipping points where an example was NYC cleaning up grafitti and trash to lower crime.

For my part, i let the hot summer day passs and call in for a moisture cleaning for 640sqft on surface between the roof and cost me about 2700$ but  that was the only major concerne for a  1970 bungalow.i would pull the plug depending at your lvl  of repair skill 

Clean house and start fresh.

New Bedford has done a nice job cleaning up the waterfront too.Just FYI - you mentioned 3.5% down. 

Clean the place up and start fresh with a tenant that is properly screened, paying market rent, and respecting your authority as the owner.Another thought: you may want to consider a property manager.

So while the process of issuing a note is very "clean" on paper, it might get messy in the real world.I just bought a nice single family in a top suburban neighborhood and rented it out to the retireing baby boomers with 200k income for top dollar.

@Richard G.Neither.Being an agent doesn't teach you how to be an investor.Property managers deal mostly with clogged toilets and dryer vent cleanings.