Tenant to take good care of provided appliances and have them working, even if replaced by the time the lease terminates.10.

I could be wrong but you’re should probably be careful with letting your potential personal biases interfere with it.If they meet the requirements together they’re in.

From my research, it seems like it's probably pretty common in DFW area to have tenants do lawn-care, but I'd probably need to cover items like pest control, HVAC check-ups etc.Also I am seeing mortgage rates for investment properties ~ 5.75% to 6%.

Good luck but be careful, you have lots to learn before jumping into flipping a house. 

If there is time to make your offer you might have the title searched to make sure there are no other liens that need to be taken care of.Unless you feel that owner will not be angry if he finds out that you are assigning the contract for profit, you might want to budget for 2 closings if you feel the possibility of him being angry about you making money. 

.. so if you're in a C-/D area, you gotta ask yourself-- is this someone who would take care of my place, or would they trash it and become violent? 

The home is in a desirable area in a highly desirable school district but the owners simply don't care for the home.

There’s not a clear answer but more of an it depends situation.

Others don't care as long as their first position is 75% LTV or less. 

The rest of the neighbors don’t care for them either, but are too afraid to call the city like I did.