In our case, we just ate the costs, but technically, the estate owes you the rent and you could become a creditor to her estate.

Over the course of a year my wife and I fixed it up, rented to friends, ate peanut butter and jelly, did everything we could.

This is right up there with, "My dog ate my homework."

Over the course of a year my wife and I fixed it up, rented to friends, ate peanut butter and jelly, did everything we could.

We stayed in an STR to get a comparable, we ate at local places, etc.It took us a several offers before we finally got one accepted.  

Over the course of a year my wife and I fixed it up, rented to friends, ate peanut butter and jelly, did everything we could.

I just sold my bldg had hoped the sale would be quicker, but deal dragged and ate up a lot of time.

7 months of use--run a snake and clean it out (might just be normal use clogging).Drano, renters will use it unless you forbid it in the contract, and then sometimes they will forget and use it.Some plumbers will charge more for a drano filled mess than a regular clog, some will not take the job.Time to pull out the checkbook and pay for some pipe repair.If the pipes were so worn that the Drano ate through them, maybe there are other drain leaks in the near future.How to snake a bathtub: https://www.youtube.com/watch?

I grew up in Cupertino CA when it still had dirt roads and no one new what a desk top computer was let alone apple was something you ate and we grew a lot of Apricots there in Cupertino.

I know a couple investors with buy and hold properties in Granite City, but the rest of what I would call the Metro East isn't... a place I would want to live.I couple years back I would run numbers on properties across the river, and nearly every time the higher IL taxes ate up the cashflow.