@Isaac El if you believe the deal good enough you could use an online service to do a 'skiptrace' which is what private investigators do to find out addresses/phone numbers of people.  

Jeanette Fox, Senior director for Risk Investigations and Research at NACHA // jfox@ BIGGER POCKETS WONT LET ME POST EMAIL // direct line for banks to call 703561 BIGGER POCKETS WONT LET ME POST #.

Only one problem, noone seems to know what to do with it.This property is overgrown, worndown, two stories, has a pool and 51,000 dollars of debt.After some investigation work (literally hired an investigator) we found the owner living in another city.

tenant 2 complained that tenant 1 was smoking so much dope that her kids are getting high in the upstairs unit.smoking and illegal activities are lease violations so i sent a notice to cease on Sept 1 via certified mail and tenant 1 contacted me about it at the time.fast forward to today, another complaint from upstairs. they say they are considering calling the police, I say go ahead. preliminary conversations with attorneys indicate that eviction for things other than non payment are expensive/difficult in NJ.approx 9 months to go on both leases.what are my responsibilities in this scenario?

She had a plumber come investigate the next day and when he pulled her fridge out the water line going into her fridge was leaking (I was up there with them and saw it... no pics, unfortunately). 

As far as preliminary screening before I schedule a showing, this is what I ask:Hi (applicant name),Thank you for your interest in (rental address).

@Tom Gimer  not sure why this is.. but out our way ( west coast) once we open and order we get a written preliminary title report e mailed or mailed to us usually within 72 hours.. this will show the current owner .. tax's  leins etc.this way if you have title issues you have plenty of time to work on them..

Anyone deal with this type of situation before and/or have some advice as to how I should think about the problem or how I should further investigate?

I originally offered on a 6-plex here in coastal NC, which is why I investigated forming a LLC and working with a commercial lender in the first place.

It's only collected one month of rent since April and I've had thousands in needless repairs due to bad management not fixing or investigating issues that should have been dealt with quickly.