I would intern at what ever real estate companies your interested in.My daughter was interested in finance.. and she interned during collage with a high level appraisal company that did apprasing for emanate domain cases.. and she worked on the one in Napa CA were the state and city bought out a big swatch of the napa river for flood control project and many business had to be relocated from hotel to shopping center to car dealer all of them needed to be valued.. it was high level work she enjoyed it.she then went on to graduate top of her class at Davis CA.. in managerial economics degree and promptly got snapped up my Intel after offers from Apple and Micro soft.now 14 years later she is a SEnior controller and a Dave Ramsey disciple which means at her age home just about paid for 2 kids in grade school and NO debt and a ton of savings and max's out her 401k.. she has little interest in real estate she owns one rental but only rents it to family. that was her path.  

(vandalism and destruction vs drug dealing and prostitution)Is someone currently living there?

The industry term for this is “dealer property” there is a great deal of case law on the issue as to what you should be considering in performing this analysis.If the property is treated as inventory, the gain is ordinary income, not capital gain.A conservative approach is to hold the property 2-years post completion to treat it as a capital asset.You should speak to your tax advisor on this issue as it is a complex analysis.

It has drug dealers next door and I'd sell it to them in a heartbeat for that price.

He likely is very involved with the tenants (drugs, sex, and $).

In addition, if the investor holds the investment in the Opportunity Fund for at least ten years, the investor would be eligible for an increase in its basis equal to the fair market value of the investment on the date that it is sold.if your a dealer in real estate this does not work right.. 

There are work arounds especially if you have broker dealers involved but you end up running out of people you know pretty quickly. 506(c) allows general solicitation but only accredited investors are allowed to invest and they have to provide evidence.

Any other issues like drugs or gang activity?

Describing contractors as guys that on friday head to the bar or buy drugs . and now we have people saying give this guy a chance , a guy who values himself at  $12 bucks an hour . 

Have called the manufactured/ modular manufacturers to ask them this question or contact some local dealers.