Some say it's an insurmountable task for an individual investor, and others suggest it's possible and worth the effort.  

this is not insurmountable debt and it could go away quickly and if some entity is paying 16k of them then your really down to a manageable figure. 

Either the property is way overpriced or it has insurmountable issues.

We were sitting in a midst of toys with both kids, now out of school for the foreseeable future, scrambling on our laps and pulling at our hair (they’re 4 and 2), wondering if we just made an insurmountable mistake.

But they are not insurmountable.  

I had a personal bankruptcy years ago, before crash, wife got hurt, I lost job and insurmountable medical bills.

You don't need to punish yourself with an insurmountable challenge.If it were written down to $65k and you could just take over the mortgage, I'd still not want it to hold.  

These are not insurmountable problems.Of course, cost is the issue here.  

Have the tank tested to determine whether it's leaking.Seller normally pays to decommission the tank prior to selling.This is not an insurmountable problem.

There are homes built there that have such attention to detail that it would be all but impossible to recreate in today's world.Nonetheless, both you and Tom are correct, Youngstown itself presents an incredible challenge, one that I don't think is insurmountable.