In my experience, they are loyal, keep to themselves, stick around awhile, and like to pay in cash (which you will never hear me complain about).It is a natural reaction to want help the "underdog", just keep in mind why you are using real estate as an investment vehicle.  

(Information gathered from Google searching his name looking for online county records.)I don't have the cash up-front to do a cash offer, and the house is too cheap for a bank to be interested, so naturally I landed on seller financing as a potential path in, assuming he's interested in selling. 

There is the possibility of (much) bigger holding cost, and the opportunity cost of deploying the money in better ROI projects.But if OP has many rehab projects under his belt, new construction is the natural progression.

Oh, before I leave this time, just to let you know that I live in an area that is the safest in the United States from natural disasters.

We usually find these buyers are out of state (typically California) with some nostalgic attachment to the area--either grew up here or went to school here.If you look at the alternatives these two types of buyers have--first time home buyer who qualifies for under $150K and can go FHA, and the California buyer with $100K who wants some degree of geographic familiarity--what are their other investment opportunities that will do better for them if they're not in the business?

Hi @Nature B. 

Is it reasonable to expect tenants to take care of things (ie. not putting wet dishes and other things away in the cabinets..not banging the edges of cabinets when they put things away…not dripping water on outsides of cabinets leaving it… and things of that nature)?

I'm hoping as I get used to it I'll gain more confidence….but I do naturally gravitate toward investing that lets me hide behind my computer as much as possible..haha.

Better to have it and not need it versus the alternative.

I am converting from oil to natural gas which is going to help me save a few grand each winter.