Even areas that we deemed safe aren't anymore.

The neighborhood I'm looking in is a pretty rough, which is why homes are so cheap, but the opportunity is there to provide clean, safe, and affordable housing for a Section 8 voucher holder.

I would not invest if the good guys are losing ground, but that would run counter to your description that it is an appreciating area.It looks fine to invest in for the information you shared if the long term forecast for the area is safe and stable to improving.

Our priorities in terms of market is there needs to be- anticipated economic growth (lots of tech companies are moving into Columbus),- prices need to allow us to buy in all cash (400k or less, ideally up to 300k),- we want the area to be safe (when looking into places like Dayton, OH or Memphis, TN for instance it looks like all our boxes are checked on paper, numbers wise but we realized quickly there are a lot of unsafe areas and we could have the potential for problem tenants)- yearly expenses to be relatively low (i.e. we are avoiding NYC and the tri state area, California, etc. for having extremely high taxes).Is our initial analysis on the right track for Columbus?

The property has been owned outright for over 70 years, has had the same tenant over 50 years (a utility company), and we are looking at taking out around 40% LTV, and the mortgage payments would be covered 2-3x by the rental income, so very stable, safe lending situation. 

They just want to make sure it's safe and livable. 

And also keep a nice chunk of change in reserves or very safe short term investments.

I've started doing some renovations on each property and have so far just ran everything through the 1 business credit card and business bank account -- keeping track of all of my invoices, etc.Even after I split up the properties into their own LLC's, is it safe to continue doing things this way?

The one thing I can say is a safe bet is getting long BTC. 

This is a technique that temporarily stays the foreclosure.