When is it worth purchasing a rental property when the presence of lead paint is "unknown"?

And in our willingness to step into the unknown, the field of all possibilities, we surrender ourselves to the creative mind that orchestrates the dance of the universe."

You can only learn so much from a book or forum before you actually jump into the unknown, this jump is key to your success.

The fact is that that the central valley has some of the best farmland in the world...I don't really have long term worries about Bakersfield's ag economy.Fracking is the bigger unknown to me.  

Let me tell you, if you're an absolute beginner, or unknown to the brokers, you are going to have a hard time getting an offer taken seriously, even if its higher than everyone else.  

If either is a condo, I'll take the other, Too many unknown future expenses on the condo.

You also have the unknown element of what things really look like behind those walls.So which do you prefer?

Scenario:-Vacant land => Upside unknown because we don't have time to get things through the city, but the floor price is valuing it at 2 buildable lots which represent a value of about $40k for us based on what has to be done to the property for utilities, site planning variances, etc.

I have two new tenants moving in, unrelated, purely roommates unknown largely to one another.

I could end up stuck with an unknown tenant.