Unfortunately, in CA driving the train is a lot more expensive, as our fuel's touted to go up at least .46 a gallon, and it's already $5.

Unfortunately no. 

Unfortunately, the "buyer" was a syndicator, so the real losers were the investors in that syndication.  

Unfortunately many lenders will see this as a red flag and may not take the risk to lend you the rest of the money even if you use stated income program or bank statement program but those are for self employed borrowers who have active income from their business but write off to many expenses that when filling their taxes their net income is really low or sometimes negative.

Given these things, in a normal circumstance, I try to increase rents 1-3% annually believing that is generally how much rents will increase LONG TERM and that a tenant's pay will likely rise in that range each year on average as well.

. - Due to all the EXTRA handlholding with the tenants in these circumstances, we either terminate our management or require a higher monthly fee from owner.If you are a PMC reading this and you do NOT have these checks in place for new clients - the market slowdown is going to cause you a ton of headaches with desperate owners dumping their problem properties on you.

After some research, I'm thinking it would be a good opportunity to proceed with the offer and to set aside the "free" money for use for repairs/renovations and holding costs to have some extra cushion.There seems to be much debate on the use of credit cards in real estate investing, but considering my circumstances .. 1.  

Plenty of owners don't like S8 tenants, but this guy was pretty golden I thought, just bad circumstances and teacher income. 

When he vacated the property and returned to his home state, he left under hostile circumstances and left significant damage at the house.

I am currently in talks with the IRS regarding this very topic, unfortunately.