I hire people who are practically homeless who work really cheap to help with mundane tasks like cleaning up roofing debris off the ground, pulling the carpet nails and staples up, painting trim and general cleanup but do everything else myself.

My loss was inspections and some attorney time, but at least I wasn't stuck with a majpor asbestos clean-up or worse - some tenant suing me for asbestos exposure.

I would research your local area (1 hour radius) and start to map out the different towns and their home prices, rents, % of owners vs. renters, industries (growing or depleting jobs) to get a better understanding of your market. 

Hi Timothy,You can probably handle it yourself if it's a light makeover and freshen up, such as paint, carpets, exterior yard work and cleanup.

Multiple LLCs are recommended by attorneys selling you the LLC docs, accountants charging you to clean up the books and idiot gurus trying to pass off convoluted asset protection stuff scaring the heck out of newbies to sell something new and different.

Nancy, after 4 years of a tenant living in your unit and leaving you with just minor clean up, all I can say is that you have truly been blessed. 

The lucky part for you is that there are many fewer people who are in the multi market than the SFR market so it should increase your chances right out of the gate so to speak.Also depends on DOM (days on market), at some point the bank will want to clean up the balance sheet for the month or quarter etc etc and if not sold, will begin dropping the price, sometimes dramatically.

If there is a problem then it is out in the open and its the sellers problem, you can adjust your price accordingly, or they can clean up and then I will close.

If you are serious that it may cost you $50k, the I'd start thinking real hard about offering the owner even more to clean up his yard.  

the costs to sell are 10 - 12 percent of equity, with the clean up costs, agents commissions, closing costs, sellers concessions, vacancy holding costs, etc.