It was nice to see it in action.

While I Am strong believer in taking action you also have to understand why you are going to pursue whatever you decide on what you want to do.

Sounds like you've been jumping in and taking action, great stuff.

If you can do a search with the local county clerk to see if there is a pending action/foreclosure against the owners.  

Trade house for 1m property.  

Tenants use about 30% more water and do not generally report leaks.Take 60% of gross rents for a D area with higher evictions and make readies and collection efforts with increased bookkeeping.75,600 X .40 ( 60% costs) = 29,240 NOI29,240 at a 10 cap is a value at 292,400 ( This is optimistic as D areas trade for 12 caps usually).175,000 purchase plus  estimate likely 13k to 14k a unit rehab so about 196,000.

Being in the trades which can be very sensitive to the economy, I'm want to avoid getting too leveraged. 

I want to be the one that creates the new design and then take action on making it happen.  

I'm thinking about adding some value and exiting with a short term hold (3-5yrs) to trade up via 1031.

I'll trade dollars for that peace of mind any day.