Sometimes, it's an owner who chose the wrong broker and all they know is sites like this.

I have been going through quite a bit of knowledge on learning ARV's for houses in various zip-codes and have attempted  doing my own "comps" but have only been using sites like Zillow and Redfin.

I did have the building painted - and made sure it was cleaned up.

Have you done a member search on this site for an Oakland lawyer @Kelly A.?

I keep hearing bits and pieces about a rental strategy that is best called "Renting to the Disabled by the Room for Above Market Rent" that goes something like this: (1) Buy a house with as many legal bedrooms as you can that still has a decent sized common area, (2) rent it out to the relatively high functioning disabled crowd, (3) via some [unnamed] Government program the State pays above market rents for each of the tenets. (4) Send a house keeper 1-2 times per week to ensure the place stays clean and otherwise make sure there are no issues.The up side is: you get above market rent with a much higher than average tenant count.

@HAILEY ERSKINE The best link is BP site.

I love this site and I'm addicted to the biggerpockets videos on youtube.

Regarding the high cost of the abatement process, my understanding is that it is mostly labor for the intense cleaning they need to do after the abatement.

Now, I don’t know Cleveland or your area, but Malcom Gladwell wrote a bit on tipping points where an example was NYC cleaning up grafitti and trash to lower crime.

Welcome to the site Bariso.