I recently saw someone buy a property at auction only to enter the property after purchase to find the house totally vandalized (broken windows, holes in walls, broken floors, concrete in plumbing).  

You might be better off buying a REO and paying someone to rehab it vs. buying a polished rental, in a turn key type situation.

We saved the concrete slab, although it could easily be removed.

All the signs were there & now I literally have several tons of crappy concrete work to look at for a long time.

It's also a concrete block home.

Keeping in mind that you'd be moving unsecured debt (no collateral) to secured debt, I would recommend doing what you suggest if you confident in your employment situation during the time horizon that it would take you to pay down $27k, and if you are confident that you will not run up more credit card debt now that your balances are freed up.Beneath enjoying the entrepreneurship of it all and investing in something concrete, you fundamental goal is to do better than you are doing today.

My friend hired a neighbor to clean up an overgrown hedge that was covering up a concrete drainage culvert on the townhouse grounds.

I want to start building a relationship with a realtor, but with no concrete assurance that i'll be able to act on a deal, I'm hesitant to talk with one.

Previous owner literally did one building but no taping, fire caulk or inspections. 4 of the units require me to pull up flooring and pour on a concrete leveler to a certain thickness over the subfloor to get my rating between those units and the studios.

Many areas have been predominately Polish or something else for generations.