I have a background in the electrical trade and consider myself a jack of all trades master of non!!

Was it the electrical in the home?

Recent squatter stole electric and water from neighbor - cops threw squatter out last week.

BTW who here would buy an electric Apple car? 

A house with screw in fuses in the electrical panel is legal as long as it past code when it was built .  

I understand the appreciation part of it unless you have other source of income to support it ,what will happen if something wrong goes and the appreciation you will only receive when you sell the property and also no vacancy means ,you are going to rent it and forget it for ever and never rent it again which is not true ,you might have to do some renovations ,clean it after somebody leaves and the tenants do not always tell you that they are moving out.

One is just finishing up electric and plumbing and the third is almost to paint and flooring.  

Sounds like you may want the deal more than they want to clean prior to sell.  

We told him it was going to take a couple months to get his unit repaired (clean up, permitting, scheduling contractor, etc) and he should find another place. 

The problem is most units share electric meters.