I would also add, it's possible you could end up repainting with Kilz which will "seal in" the cause of the smell functionally eliminating it. 

Literally everything to learn about real estate, deal-wise, all comes down to simple addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.

A lot of people give up at that stage but if you track down the owners, you may be the first person to approach them because it takes additional work.

I've seen folks purchase properties, that have tenants signed on for a year or so, but their immediate expectation was to evict/break a signed lease of one unit, so they could live in one, while the other offsets and provides the additional cash flow one would expect.

@Aaron Gordy A couple of quick reminders about how things are different out here: 1) We have earthquakes, everything has to be engineered to withstand seismic forces in additional to the slide issue.

I have found that education and mindset was first for me in addition to your step 1.  

Hopefully you get a response and set up a sting with the police.In addition, so long as the occupants (who I hope are victims and not the perpetrators) are not up on all their RE info, you can tell them that they were duped and as sad as it is, they needed to perform their due diligence and confirm that the PM or the phony owner who scammed them were on title or not.

Your last two years are averaged to give you the 24 month avg net rental income that you can use as additional income on your application.Hopefully that makes sense.

Here are some points that may help others in their letter writing campaign:Be professional in you content - get to the point in the first lineDon't draw pictures on the envelopeDon't draw dollar signs around everything - don't draw pictures of stick housesBe yourself - tell your story; example - we are a family business, looking to purchase additional properties for our family portfolio - we can pay cash but would prefer some seller assisted financing, glad to supply references if needed - we live in the area ----etc.Forget the YELLOW thingDon't tell on yourself, don't call yourself an investor - Don't lie - I can settle in 2 days - we are big (like a made up name -) people like to do business with others they can identify with - be humble if that is possible.As for sending letters to vacant houses that are Free and Clear - why do all that research - a waste of time in my opinion!

I have the property under contract and will be closing with cash, I then hope to execute the additional transaction (sale from me to end buyer for the higher price), both transactions will be at same title company; double close.