@Stephen Totter, thanks for jumping on and conveying your experience!

It's called a payoff statementif it's a big lender you will not buy the loan as it will take forever, you are better just paying it off. you then can foreclose based on the total balance owed to you which is both loans and any accrued interest. regarding fixing property or selling as is, that really depends and needs to be evaluated on a case by case basis 

A PMC is the ONLY one that will deal daily with your property.Here's some copy & paste advice on hwo to screen PMCs:Recommend exploring as many sources as possible to get referrals AND cross-reference them to get as much accurate information as possible.Check out NARPM.com, BP’s Property Manager Finder (BiggerPockets: The Real Estate Investing Social Network), etc.Also, encourage you to learn from the mistakes of others - by reading posts here on BiggerPockets about owners not having their expectations met by their current Property Management Company.

I am also on the loan.

Be careful following the advice of strangers on the information superhighway.

I'll thank you on their behalf.

We are focused on families and want to sleep 10 or more.

I'm negative most months and rent doesn't cover my monthly payment.

The fire hydrants don't work, the "water lady" who gets paid $750,000 a year to turn the tap on didn't do that, and on and on and on.

You want to focus on markets that work with your plan and also where you have a personal connection with someone, even if you build that on the internet.