Many foundation problems have water as a root cause - be that infiltration in a crawl space, drainage around the site, cracked sewer line or water line.

If there is, any heavy rains will cause water levels to increase upstream and all of that will funnel into the creek downstream-and it won't just be water from one area.  

I do take an annual look at actual profitability and that has caused me to plan the sale of 1 property this year - despite my investments it continually underperforms my goals.

Just to give you a little history my brother was that person on the first house however because of his lack of knowledge and him being a bit of a hot head, he did more harm than good. 

Note that this is ground level unit and there was a theory at first that external moisture is causing it so we tried to work with the HOA. 

I have a clause for liquidated damages ($50 each day delay goes out of his pay), but this is still causing me to lose time. 

That said, if it works in your favor-rehabbing or whatever-no harm in cutting the tenant a break.

Not sure how that would harm the tenant.

I believe this kinda of set up will cause you problems in the long run.

I see a lot of out of state investors get burned by buying things in areas that they assumed to be of a higher "grade" than what their results showed it to be.If you end up in the Warrensville Heights portion of 44128 keep in mind that there will be POS and occupancy/rental license requirements in place that may cause unexpected costs to add up quite quickly for you.