Second, people steal from unlocked mailboxes.Id say no one is at fault here per se, **** happens.

I would never buy a place that is a steal in a bad area. 

Unless you come across a steal that it too good to pass up in an up and coming or highly desirable area. 

Which is more likely: a thief who waits until tenants are moving out and steals only the A/C or a tenant that steals your A/C on the way out the door thinking you'll never go after them?

The idea that you can build wealth without putting any money into it is a recipe for disaster and the sales pitch of gurus trying to steal your money.

I know there are some better/worse areas of the city (and most of the "steals" seem to be in the worse areas, but how is the market in general? 

My CPA uses Quickbooks, but I like all the real estate functionality in Stessa. this is not surprising, given their parent company also not making money and just laid off a bunch of people, i was expecting more than $20/mo already, it's still a steal with their fee IMO.

Agents are becoming crooks--not all, but most.

Usually the seller will cave in and sell it for the lower price so you can get some steals that way.

The two times we did not stick to our guns we had to redo the job since walls were crooked and not straight and went to arbitration with the "best" contractor in town.