@Devin Borders - I can't speak to if there is a legal way to both assume/pay their mortgage and fully protect yourself, but I am sure there are others that can.One thought I had was if this property is off-market and ~$220K in value, I'd offer much less for the following reasons:  If you can do this without realtors (if it is not currently listed with one), that would save the sellers 6% in commissions (~$13k).  

Its a great community of knowledgeable people.If you need anything be sure to speak up! 

I obviously don't want to spend $5-6.00/sqft to get something of real high quality. 

If you can't, the 10% management fee is generally a bit high, but I'd keep it because you need to hire a motivated and high quality local property manager who will take this on.  

I am sure you think you work hard for your money but  I have seen many investors who do shoddy jobs or less than quality on their flips and price like they are gold plated so let's not call the kettle black. 

What I had in mind was buying an apartment complex of over 500k, putting the 200k as 20-25% down payment so I could get a higher price/quality deal.

My area of uncertainty has to do with the lower quality property in a lower income neighborhood.

The return from a rental will generate next to no income relatively speaking.

Therefore I would only want those who would be an asset to my name, and generally the cost is higher than those who produce lesser quality (from the available options that I have found). 

My whole point is that when analyzing a property in the book Brandon speaks of cash on cash return of 10% as a goal.