The title company will make sure the title is clean.

I second the @Dave Foster recommendation.

I'm interested in learning a bit more about typical vacancy percentages, size of the local population being serviced, reasonable percentage of effective gross income for expenses, etc. as well Peter.Hopefully some experienced member(s) will sound off!

It was also during the deposition that the litigants learned the owner moved to Florida after the sale of the business and bought a mansion.

I'm giving a reverse example, as in I will show how my credit score dropped 59 points in one month because I forgot to do my "trick".The trick is to pay off your entire balance the day of your "statement closing date". 

They are all in decent areas.I like the program.They pay all or a large portion of the rent.The tenants take care of my houses and stay a long time.

You are required to file a complete and accurate return, which means reporting the income that you earned along with atleast the direct expenses that you incurred on your rental.There are two comflicting forces - Your tax accountant wants to be aggressive with deductions because it will entitle you to paying less taxes(now or in the future).Your lender wants to see as much income as that will increase your Debt to Income Ratio(DTI).The good thing is that you can speak with your lender about 'one time expenses', that were only incurred in that year and are not reoccuring. 

Even if that is not your intention, the IRS could decide that is what it was which would mean that the seller would have lost his 1031 ability since he "sold" you the house when he accepted the first payment.

@Shivani Brijmohan, while I cannot speak to NY, I will say in general:You should know how the property will be reassessed when you buy the property.  

@Kyle Lam The best to learn is by hands on experience.