Or is this something that can easily be brought to code?

These people have very little money to put down, but can demonstrate the ability to easily pay a good amount each month ($850).What I want to do is pay off the balances on each, take title to my name, then sell them each on land contract to a buyer. 

I have done it all, so I can tell BS pretty easily.

If the screw driver easily pushes into the wood, then they need to be replaced.

It has been a great income producer and is easily rented.

For a different example, I was looking at an apartment complex and they had a long time renter that had fish tanks, the inspection found that the whole floor in that unit was trashed due to the fish tank leaking and spills over the years that wasn't easily found via a walk through or HVAC filter replacement.  

@Austin Shandley you have a lot of great Portfolio loan options with the 'commercial' lending space that will easily reach into the 4's assuming you have decent credit and the property cashflows at least 1.1 DSCR.

It is worse with money orders, because if they become lost they cannot be easily replaced like a check.As others have suggested, direct deposit into your bank account is the best option.

The more expensive mortgage because of PP is easily offset by how fast rents are increasing if your concerned about casfhflow post refi.

In other words, although on paper I'm responsible for more out-of-pocket expenses, I can more easily cover it.