In many areas that is like getting blood from a stone and involved more legal fees  if the contractor burned you it is probably not the first time. 

No real post history, then you pop in with a detailed, positive response about a company that has burned so many people in this forum. 

There’s higher risk that you burn out with more difficult tenants (even if you use a PM), than you missing out on good investments.

@Ellie NarieThis is usually where out-of-state investors will crash and burn is by trying to self-manage a rental and save money.

Just spoke to a property owner we met here on BP.Very nice person who's been DIY managing their double-digit doors after being burned by bad PMCs in the past.Wanted weekly in-depth updates, all rents deposited in their bank account - and then they would pay the PMC their fee, and expected the PMC to use their PM software.Pretty much looking for a go'fer person, NOT a PMC.We wished them good luck.

On the inside, the apartment was left pretty dirty..greasy stove from oil being over heated, dust all over ceiling and walls(an impressive amount), wall stains from what looks like candles or incense burning?

I'd suggest reading up on the topic on the forums, where you'll find many examples of inexperienced investors crashing and burning hard trying to do out of state (OOS) REI...the story is usually the same--they had no experience with REI, they couldn't find any cashflowing properties locally, but they saw that properties in other states (often the Midwest) cashflowed well on paper.

Unfortunately my credit took a huge hit because I co-signed for someone’s vehicle and got burned with them missing 8 payments.

In a state that a lender can get a deficiancy judgement if the deal goes through foreclosure the client can get their credit trashed and end up with a big fat judgement against them.. ( state specific).the reason your probably getting buyers that want to do this is because of all the online notoriety currently like Pace Morby who is huge in the space and the legions of students and followers and then to a lesser extent there is BP's own Sub to Guys..

Got so burned