Inherited tenants make up a huge proportion of the bad tenant stories we see here, because they're often the reason the place was for sale... it's not surprising to see a seller claiming all is good, when one hasn't paid in half a year.

@Richard Dekok I’m kind of surprised you are only cash flowing $299 from a paid off house.

I will be sure to use this as a tool to help my future clients understand before they are surprised by it like I was! 

EDUCATE YOURSELF - yes, it will take time, but will lead to a selection that better meets your expectations & avoids potentially costly surprises!

Every landlord who has owned properties long enough gets surprised by a higher than normal water bill and this is typically the culprit in my experience.

and I got very familiar with my PV function on my RE calculator until you run the PV you would be surprised .for instance a 30 month Zero interest fully amortized note has he same cash value day one as a 15% 7 year note.. so in the day were we did land sales with seller carry back and our note version of BRRRR  we always looked at what our note buyers wanted for a return then manipulated the terms to meet the note buyers goals..   

That said, the cost of these units, as you noted, are affordable and surprisingly, prices have been going up even though we're going into the off season. 

I wouldn't be surprised if a local bank was to do your take-out, but I might be surprised to do the purchase + rehab. 

***Some rough numbers: under contract at 300k, rehab budget was 30k (not including subfloor/joist/ductwork surprise) ARV 430k.

This may seem overly basic but you'd be surprised how many people do almost no due diligence.