They almost always get destroyed by the time someone moves out.

I would advise against renting to friends or family because it will destroy the relationship if anything goes wrong.

The example they used was Morris setting up a liability policy for a situation where their reputation was destroyed and they got sued by investors.

Nothing worse than having a bunch of drunk people you barely know destroy your house.Other than that, I would suggest trying to tap your existing resources, namely your dad for more information. 

Have toured a handful of them and either the numbers don't work, bad foundation, located in the 100 yr flood plane and require flood insurance destroying cash flow etc etc. 

One eviction or one destroyed property can easily suck the wind out of any investor. 

This would solve the seller's problem of not completely destroying their credit, there is a huge difference between late payments and a foreclosure.

but the tenants all have large pets that are destroying the place. 

Lots of broken hearts and destroyed finances over situations you describe.

Good will is destroyed by tenants that do not pay rent on time as required by their contract.