Credit has its uses and the model of buying depressed real estate with super cheap money in a strong rental environment is a good (fantastic) one, its just that after fighting so much with those bastards when the market tanked and I had loans out the wazoo I'll personally never give up that much control of my business again.You can wholesale with no money and no credit, you can rehab with other peoples money, but if you are building a rental portfolio you're way better with bank funds (or partnering with someone who can get bank funds).

Besides being large enough for a person to exit the egress windows must be large enough for a fire fighter to enter with and air tank on their back.Zoning, codes and safety aside, I have had a basement apartment. 

She wants to turn the middle bedroom into a huge walk in closet .The back bedroom holds the water tank in the corner of the closet.  

When you get sued by the county and they're issuing $1000 a day fines because they're tired of the mess you made, your leaking underground storage tank, or your illegal wrecking yard, you tend to get motivated pretty quickly.

The low priced properties in my area need a ton of work, they have water damage, mold, bad septic systems, failed roofs, underground oil tanks, etc.

You can not put septic tanks below flood plain so there is no permanent building in the flood plain unless you put it on stilts or raise it up significantly. 

I don't want to be pigeon-holed if one asset class tanks and all my eggs are in that basket.

To me a only major red flag would be if the property had some sort of environmental issue such as a leaking underground oil tank.

Pump the septic tank before listing a property. :) Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

Even when AirBnb seems to tank.