As far as I know, you will have to allow the city to inspect any unit you plan on renting once every 3 years or with any change in occupancy to obtain a certificate of habitability, as described here: https://ecode360.com/4243371This registration requirement is indeed new.

Generally a church in the neighborhood is a willing donee because they can use sweat equity and donated materials to make the property habitable again and either sell it or rent at below-market rents to someone in the church who needs that assistance.

That means they could be off by several hundred thousand in my market, which does more harm than good in my experience. 

I’ve gotten in the habit of skip-tracing the owners info from public records for starters, and also their spouse and any other family members I can find, as well as the neighbors surrounding the property/ talking to as many people as necessary to confirm the seller is who they say they are and is actually selling.  

Yesterday, I posted my standard notice on the front door advising the occupants that the place has been sold, to call me, and that if I don't hear back, I may initiate an unlawful detainer or if the place is vacant that I may change the locks, along with a copy of the deed.The property looks barely habitable (hot water heater is on the back porch (which looks like it's about to fall off its rotted post foundation), sheets of drywall and plywood out front, tons of beer cans and collection notices on the front door, and rotted siding/wood on one side of the house.

Taking out a car loan will do more harm than good at this point & it's simply not needed.

We don’t know any PMCs to recommend in the area mentioned, but since selecting the wrong PMC is usually more harmful than selecting a bad tenant, you might want to read our series about “How to Screen a PMC Better than a Tenant”:https://www.biggerpockets.com/member-blogs/3094/91877-how-to-screen-a-pmc-better-than-a-tenant-part-1-services-and-processesWe recommend you get management contracts from several PMCs and compare the services they cover and, more importantly, what they each DO NOT cover.

After doing some research it was clear that this management company makes a habit of doing this and that these were unfair charges.

In my area, the tenant may withhold rent or immediately leave if the landlord fails to make the place habitable.

So, they look for habitability issues as well as safety issues like detectors, handrails, GFCI outlets, etc.