How will you know if the letter is from the actual landlord?

I live out of state (out of country, actually), and have never lived/rented/landlorded in the US.

Currently in grad school but previously worked in hybrid social service/tenant management roles inside affordable housing developments so I've seen some of the worst of the worst.

Basement was "finished" in that it had walls and flooring, so we completely redid and made it an actual basement.

If you're dead set on investing in the area, then I would try to partner up with other investors to see if it's worth it, otherwise take a look into OOS investing in a state like Ohio where the numbers and landlord laws actually make sense. 

That said in this setup unless someone wants to do I would have a service do it, not the tenants.

The most recent “webinar” with Faircloth and Francois was shameless promotion with almost no actual value.I hate to be negative, I’ve gotten a lot from BP.  

Whatever the City won't adjust off you get to deduct from your taxes anyway, so you're not actually paying the cost of the water usage.5.

Join a local real estate investing club and learn what you can from other investors who are actually doing deals not talking about doing deals.

I like working with agents and matter of fact I can offer a buy price service to agent where before they go on their listing appointments I can give them a buy price and contract they can have in their back pocket.