and there is apparently chat about a footing/foundation issue which could be a dealbreaker.

Account Closed take profit when you can no one can fault you with a profit.There are only so many Palo Alto California's on the planet.If you think RE can go to 1,000 a foot for single family then you might wantto hold..

They described how horrible it became watching the families they shared the buildings with, filling kiddie pools, having water balloon fights and hearing their water run non-stop for bathes and showers.Their neighbors had no incentive to keep the water bill down because they always had some poor stooge, working long hours, never around, who had to foot their bill.And believe me at least one of them tried to reason with the nitwit landlord... but to no avail. 

@Trevor K.I'd actually disagree its a joist issue and say it's probably a footing issue if it's over a crawl$1-5K seems very light to me fix.

It looks like the data feed isn't robust for our area, which may be true for other areas as well.

I got some cheap ones from Home Depot for my rental for like 99 cents a square foot and they look great.

In other words, you can shoot yourself in the foot and in some cases be liable for bad decisions.Insurance is another world too, you'll need to understand any perils that may effect you and ensure your tenant is properly insured.All depends on the size and scope of what you're saying when you say "commercial". :)

I'm just starting some homes and also a 500 foot addition on my new home here but will be gone nearly 2 months, so my input would come after that.

I know enough to get quality people with good referrals/references and that have reasonable fees.Thanks David,Your approach sounds great.Buying 1 or 2 from turn key providers and that gets your foot in the door in that particular market where you can then start to buy and fix yourself.Well done.Thanks

You can get a new roof done for about $250 per square, or $2.50 per covered square foot assuming its a simple roof with a normal pitch.