When you let tenants do work, there is lots that can go wrong.If I let tenants do work, I always pay them fair market value for their work.

The houses weren’t maintained by the owner that well.

I am fairly new to real estate landlording. 

I would just pick something that doesn’t have any fees as long as you maintain a certain balance.

Is this fair?

The DUI may be a Fair Housing Issue, I wouldn't bring that one up.

I felt somewhat trapped--wanted to maintain good relationship with MIL & her husband(who bought house and are going to be a permanent fixture in the neighborhood), but DIL & BF didn't look great on paper.

Hello,I am interested in buying an off market property in my area, and am wondering how to structure several offers as I know the seller is open to cash, owner-financing (as long as it has a short term), or regular mortgage type close.My target price is $265k, which I believe is more than fair as I purchased a property in the same area at a lower valuation some time back.I was thinking of offering $260k cash.

I have two questions.1)  How do I maintain limited liability on rentals if they are in my personal name?  

If you ask me, even if I got stuck at the asking price, being able to walk away from renting someone else's property for $1200+/month to paying myself $500/month and then still making over 10% Cash-on-Cash annually is a pretty good trade-off and sets me up to be able to get to the next one fairly quickly.