That said, it's in use at the moment (if you consider 5 rooms full to be in use lol)   As each room is only currently bringing in about $200 a month, I think the smart play would be a few "long-term" tenants to boost the rent rolls immediately and take up some of the vacancy.   

I quite literally look at opportunities now in terms of how much mental brain damage is this process going to cost me. 

There are other tools out there though which may be worth looking into (ie. when your tenants pay rent online they can report those online payments to the credit bureaus which can boost their scores by up to 40 points).

It's hard to imagine the mental state you'd have to be in to take time out of your day to send a message like that to someone who sent you a postcard.

When you say "more important is enforcement" this kind of mentality is what gets you in trouble.

It had been abandoned for several years, so we had to get the gas lines pressure tested before we could have the gas company reconnect us.Our plumber was so slow that I was mentally rehearsing CPR - but even dead people move faster than him. 

I do know though on our market if sellers are elderly and the Senior escrow officers feels they may not be completely mentally with it.. they will not close the transaction without the seller coming in and if they think there is an issue will require 3rd party legal representation.

The fed started printing money, then artificially boost the RE price in the following years.Originally posted by @Amit M.

If it's in the worst part of town, you need to expect a lot of problems, and most importantly-- be able to handle them financially and be mentally ready to invest a lot of $$$ to make them better.   

I can't help you with qualifications but maybe 6 months is enough time to boost a credit score, knock out a some bad debt, or boost a reserves account.