As an aside, a contractor told me that a property can pass an inspection but once someone is living there and putting daily stress on the house, things can start to malfunction.

I don't see how they get away with it but maybe some buyer's agents are not helping their buyers with due diligence and inspections??

I've never bought the property from a long distance, I always go and look/inspect/feel.

My wife are in escrow on our first rental property purchase (in the Columbus, Ohio market) and are underway with inspection, finalizing the loan, getting quotes on homeowners insurance, interviewing property managers, etc.

Regular inspections and making sure the property looks great not only helps with tenant retention but also attract quality renters.What about you?

As for foundation or other concerns about the condition of the property, there's no real way to know for sure since you don't have access to inspect the house before the auction (hence the risk).

We're able to crank out mods regardless of weather, have all of our inspections scheduled like clockwork, and control the timing of production with the site work. 

Do an inspection every year for the long term tenants and keep rents at market value so when you exit the property it will have a higher value. 

Use and Occupancy - In the city of phila its called an L&I Cert (License and Inspections) Its just a cert you buy online for 130 bucks that discloses any violations

I have a tenant who I believe to be on some type of heavy drug like herion, or meth ...I recently inspected the property it was full of garbage everywhere some hording, it's just trashed.