Maybe leave the bottom cabinets black and paint the uppers white.

This is due to the shear number of rules, black box underwriting via desktop underwriter and loan prospector, the type of person the nature of the MLO/Underwriter professions tends to attract and retain, among other things, that make it near impossible for a debtor friendly experience.I'd like to cut out the bank.  

The inability to get 20k mortgages combined with the opinion of banks that these areas are write-offs anyway led to these areas being shortsale black holes for a long time.Kansas City springs to mind.

There are many networking events around us including ARIEA's, various Meetup's and the Black Diamond event in Waltham.

If you could, then rent increases should have you "Back in Black" soon with some equity intact hopefully.

Trash everywhere, food stains throughout, toilet bowl almost black, and shower looking like something out of a horror film.

this way, if you have to pick up $500 of the expenses but in one year - you can purchase another 3 unit property and rent the one you were living in for $1100 - then BAM - you know with pretty good certainty that the first property will be cashflowing for a roughly $600 profit (or in the black).then you live in a unit in the second property and hopefully can come close to breaking even...however - this can be a real pain in the buttocks...the bottom line is you want to avoid properties that don't cash flow, unless you're an experienced investor and bank on quick appreciation values (speculative investing).

If I discovered someone pitching a bogus property to me - they would go on my BLACK LIST (never do business with them) for life.

You also must check out the Black Diamond event that is in Waltham (2nd location in Worcester as well) that @Ann Bellamy is one of the founders of.There is also the Boston Area REIA which would be the other super close one for you.

The plumbing could have lead supply lines and galvanized supply lines, and the waste lines could be clay, "Orangeburg" (Black coal-tar impregnated fiber piping), and even cast iron waste can develop cracks especially if the lines go unused for long periods.