Don't over-tighten the bolts to the floor.In most parts of the country, ripping out a tub and floor would be considered a bathroom remodel and would require a permit and licensed plumbers.

NJ is the state in the country with the highest property taxes.7.8K in property tax in NJ is not extraordinaryIf @Mayer got at 210k cash when it is actually worth 285k.

I have been in the mortgage banking business for 20 years but I took a 5 year break and was an insurance agent for Country Financial and Farmers. 

If you hire a bad property manager, or general contractor you could lose thousands of dollars because you are halfway across the country and don't know what is going on with your property other than what these strangers are telling you. 

This is leading me to look all around the country on loopnet.com and I see that many rust belt areas have much cheaper investment options.

Like @Jay Hinrichs mentioned, there's a ton of value in your product, and it's only available to a small part of the country.

As an out of state (and out of country) investor, I would not recommend this.   

While there are many "good" markets across the country for multifamily investing, it ultimately depends on your goals and your investment strategy.

I would never have reached that couple with an absentee owner mailing.Money Mailer franchisees can sell into any area of the country, so I'd be happy to talk to you about this if you'd like to pursue it.

In the rest of the country you may say that's insane.