There is a good thinker that says the neighberhood can be as important as the quality of the property that your investing in as far as value goes.Take advantage of people are more motivated and are willing to help people close.  

Even Donald Trump, with a starting grubstake of $58,000,000.00 and a billionaire father consignor ( of loans "only" up to $100,000,000.00), and working in his father's real estate business since the age of eleven (collecting the coins from the laundry rooms in his fathers apartment houses, where I first met him), saw the need for a quality education and attended and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business with a Bachelor of Business degree with a major in Real Estate.So the point is that education and experience are the necessary ingredients for a successful career in real estate investing.  

I did what I thought was a good thing that turned out to be bad.  

You are trying to get his general thoughts on his being open to it or more closed off based on bad experiences in the past.If he seems neutral to positive you could bring up you are thinking of bringing in a partner on a deal and start talking about the property and details.

The one house I'm looking at has over 1300 square feet and doesn't look that bad (Compared to the rest of the town).

At this time I would Sell two of my rental houses in order to Buy my friends two houses, on the lot next door, in a bad neighborhood, because I can get them for $30K under Retail, after a new roof and electric.

You were already given bad information a while back - what changed?

I understand that this may come with a host of other problems, bad tenants, etc. though. 

If it makes you feel any better, 40% over that time period is actually a really bad rate of return, provided you bought cash.

I used Matvey to repair a foundation and was very happy with the quality of their work.