These are expensive to work on and requires the landlord to pay for the heating of the water.A lot of the soil there is unstable and you see foundation problems at many apartment buildings. 

I'm talking horrible credit with multiple evictions, no to grossly unstable work history, long and violent rap sheets, sex offenders, drug abusers/manufacturers/dealers..... 4.

Tenants paying only $500 or less in what you call a sketchy neighborhood usually have issues that make paying rent perpetually unstable.

Baltimore has a ways to go:From the Washington Post:"As Maryland’s largest city has dwindled from a peak population of 950,000 in 1950 to about 620,000 today, the receding tide has left behind 17,000 boarded-up houses and buildings, unoccupied, unwanted and unstable.

High real estate taxes, 21-day non-judicial foreclosures, nearly non-existent appreciation, unstable soils that destroy foundations, not to mention the ongoing severe drought. 

My first big problem is the second story balcony, it is very unstable and I was looking at some tips for repairs.

The soil may not perk for a septic system, the soil may be unstable or there could be flooding on the lot. 

That means one partner is bringing more to the table (all other things being equal) than the one with poor credit and unstable job history and that will need to be addressed.  

You can’t come up with a realistic offer price using a cap rate and an actual NOI on a property that is unstable.

I know I am not.. there are far easier ways to make big money in RE than this model... and especially if you dealing in the lowest value assets in a given community.. you are then dealing daily with the most unstable hard to corral people in your community.. it will burn you out..