If a property completely burns down and isn't livable anymore is the owner still required to pay the mortgage during the time the proprerty is being fixed up again?

Also you might not even buy this property upon inspection and need to find another property and you have burned that bridge.You could sit down with your friend and explain you feel like he could be doing more to help you in this transaction for his services.

Likely your friend got burned several times and each time made the lease longer to cover what happened to him.

Along with a good management system and it will help minimize the time you have to spend managing the properties.My current units are much newer nice middle class units and the same applies no matter where they are but I think it is more imperative to have a good system going and high enough rents to hire out most tasks and still have nice cash flow for lower end units.A lot of LL get burned out with only a handful of units because they do most of the work themselves, in the grand scheme of things, looking long term, I would rather hire out most tasks and work on running a better business.

I looked into these super cheap Detroit places a few years ago and aside from the burned out, stripped condition and bad area, they were strapped with often $9-$12k in back taxes and back-utilities due.  

I havent gotten rid of any yet (7 years) but we also have a fireproof file cabinet for it all, after move out I get rid of all digital files (burn onto dvd) and put with the hard copy, so less concern to me that way. 

One of the things we're struggling with is how to figure out if this cash burn is management-driven, location-driven, property-driven, or just a particular run of bad luck.Another property has a good tenant who has asked to sign a Lease Purchase Agreement.  

@Westin Hudnall Expect Points to be the burn. 3-8% depending on your market.

Fat fingers.

Blow them out before leaving the roomNotify landlord when away from unit for more than 3 days.Keep portable heaters at least one foot away from anything that can burn (including curtains, furniture, and you)No painting without approval from managementNo smoking insideAll furniture should have wood floor protection on feet.