As @Rick Pozos mentioned, if it's listed, and it's been on the market a while, it's likely overpriced, has a major issue(s), or the surrounding area is so bad that it's driving buyers away. 

I am interested in the wholesale part of the real estate niche as I have bad credit and no money but I also am a law abiding citizen. 

This sounds easy and innocent enough but be careful because if this goes bad you can be in trouble because a judge could potentially see this held back as a lease option fee or owner financing down payment if he gets a smart lawyer .

It's bad that you didn't do anything with that knowledge.

What to look out for in determining potential neighborhoods (I am not local to the area and is curious on how "hot" neighborhoods started out and what signs to look out for)How bad can a bad investment be?

Ive heard good and bad things.

As a newbie, you need to learn about what a good deal is and what a bad deal is.

This is probably bad advise but here’s my opinion ..if he’s a good tenant otherwise and pays his rent and he’s doing tasteful improvements that Add value and maintains his repairs why would you want to drive off such a tenant .

None of the units have dishwashers or washer/dryers, so may not be too bad, but still considering if it is feasible to have meters added so I can bill tenants for their water. 

I've heard it's possible, though costly, to dig up and remove all of the bad dirt, and replace it with new clean dirt.