Relative to the past 15 years, it is a poor time to buy residential buy and hold.  

An official background check and personal referrals can help you identify red flags unrelated to finances, such as poor tenant behavior or previous criminal activity.

Quote from @Jonathan Greene: Quote from @Jay Hinrichs: Eh  what about the gentlemen from Evergreen Colorado who just hammers on poor Pace Morby calling him all sorts of things.. etc.. for me I am surprised Pace has not sued him.

To avoid going through the same poor experience, keep reading.Even if someone gives you a referral here, do NOT make the mistake of assuming that the PMC will meet your expectations, just because they met the expectations of the referral source.In our experience, the #1 mistake owners make when selecting a Property Management Company (PMC) is ASSUMING instead of CONFIRMING.It's often a case of not doing enough research, as they don't know what they don't know!

And the market conditions are unwelcoming (physically distressed inventory, difficulties with Ogden City, and poor tenant pool). 

They should be doing a load calculation, taking into account insulation and window type if I'm recalling how it works properly. 

In my state (PA) a tree falling and causing damage to someone else's property only creates liability for the owner of the tree if the tree was known to be in poor condition or if the owner should have known it was in poor condition.

It’s a great concept, but poor execution in our experience.

To avoid going through the same poor experience, keep reading.Even if someone gives you a referral here, do NOT make the mistake of assuming that the PMC will meet your expectations, just because they met the expectations of the referral source.In our experience, the #1 mistake owners make when selecting a Property Management Company (PMC) is ASSUMING instead of CONFIRMING.It's often a case of not doing enough research, as they don't know what they don't know!

IMO a bigger red flag would be poor record keeping on expenses and other documentation that would indicate property condition.Anyway, you're ultimately purchasing the income stream that *you* can achieve, not what the seller achieved.