It's not in horrible shape, but it's old and outdated and been vacant for several years leading to a less than attractive home. 

I had figured the second one wasn't shaping up to be a good purchase.

Keep your investment in good shape by finding good tenants, and keeping up with fixes and care.

Glad that your previous tenants left the place in great shape for you. 

It's in rough shape and I am going to renovate it to bring it up to max value before I refinance it (brrrr strategy). 

. - all are occupied- 90% of properties are in rentable but rough shape and need significant work in the near future. 

The times I'd been over there to address repair requests (very rare throughout the years; it's understandable now) bedroom doors were closed and "friends were visiting" that day.Instead of evicting for breach of lease I decided to raise the rent by $375; they paid but sent a letter of termination with the appropriate timeline (30 days notice).The letter of termination included a statement that they fully expected to receive all of their security deposit back as they were leaving the house is "excellent" shape. 

I just put one property on escrow which was also in a very bad shape - strong smell with cat urine and I had to replace all drywall and existing flooring.As I am waiting for my escrow to be closed, this came into my attention.

After six months on the market, we received no commucation nor any potential tenant inquiries which we found to be extremely strange given the good shape of the house and pricing.At last we decided to take the property back. 

I replied, asking him to send me pictures, and I would get back to him.My understanding is that if the area is in bad shape, I need to maintain it.