In fact, it's mostly miserable.

Your inspector and contractor failed you miserably and should somehow be held accountable for the oversight.

There are people who are successful in out of state investing and some that fail miserably. 

The permitting staff in the city are some of the most miserable human beings on the planet.

Not worth making it miserable for them by demanding more than would be reasonable.

A miserable fact I will always have to bear witness to when speaking of my fellow Greeks.The first thing the bus driver said when he came to was, "I'm going to get that guy.

I get that.however talking to a past owner can have benefits. you can learn of defects that you can address in the property.. or in my extreme example of just talking to the lady I turned the tables and made 750k in net profit on one 125k foreclosure.. that certainly would never have happened if I had not taken the time to talk to her and try to help her out of a very miserable situation for her.. keep in mind that was then .. and a lot of people losing homes in those days were older had no jobs.. all they had was equity in the home and the kids would talk them into borrowing against it and then go blow the money.. kind of like elder abuse.. 

A lease might encourage a tenant to stay for the duration of the lease, but if the tenant wants to move and is only staying to ride out the lease, they may be miserable and more likely to make you miserable too.

I call it 2br, I don't want a huge family that makes life miserable for the other tenants.

Working at a job you don't enjoy can be miserable.