As for the decision, it's really tough for any of us to say without knowing your goals, your situation and the numbers on this particular house.

Also, before you buy another property you'll want to determine your ideal next property - meaning, will it be a "rent ready" house, a major renovation project, or somewhere in between.

@Paloma Wodehouse I started by going to Housing Court sessions and hearing the Cases and their "Dispensation of Justice".

I've done this on one house in order to cut costs - since then, I've added a meter with the utility company but it's a good workaround for the short term. 

As others have said, the best thing your son can do is run far from this deal, buckle down, save his pennies (he probably already is doing this), house-hack, and improve a property with sweat, hard work, developing a DIY skillset, and self-managing tenants. 

The bill for a roof on a $60,000 house is the same as a $500,000 house, however, the % of Revenue on each are vastly different. 

Start by joining local real estate groups, narrowing your approach to strategies like house hacking or multi-family investing, and building a team of professionals like agents and lenders.

It seems to me that they all whether paid of free, will all have the same exact amount of houses because all the transactions are all public and so they seem to compete with each other based on the quality of the data of the houses, how up to date it is, and the user experience in configuring the how the layout is.

The investor if they slip and the lender if they need to take the house back.  

The house was flooded to the tune of $70,000 in repairs.