He's going to bolt down the trap door from top floor into basement and remove attic ladder so vandals can't get into attic.

However, that is a very human-centric thinking which is problematic.Here's a saying I heard this week:If insects were destroyed, all animals and humans would be quickly extinct.But if humans were destroyed, the rest of the earth would blossom. 

Had we signed an exclusive buyer broker with any one of them (they all tried to make us sign it before showing us a house), we would likely have trapped ourselves for months.  

@Mark WurtembergI personally have come to view a 401K as a sort of trap.

My situation was not good because I inherited the tenant and my property manager does not specialize in section 8.

Don't find yourself getting trapped into landlord tenant laws and rent control.

I bought a nice apt building because the owner was so fed up paying electricians to go flip breakers and plumbers to hand-tightening sink drain traps.

All i'm trying to do is: 1- remove a not working dishwasher, and install a new one, 2- install a P-trap in a bathroom sink. 

If people and jobs are leaving, it is most likely a value trap - cheap, but going to get cheaper.

I just feel stuck and trapped at the moment.