My target areas are; East Falls, Germantown and Mount Airy.

Fueled mostly by our enjoyment of renovating and turning a dump into a diamond as well as not enjoying the pressure applied by the recession!

If the recession is long and deep you may realize some pressures to lower rents but if that happens then I'm not sure where you could invest that would survive that type of recession.  

@Chris Lawson A little more old school alternative is a flush mounted ceiling fan.  

I also thought this would be a great spot for a wall mounted TV, hence the outlet on the wall and the cable hanging.

Good areas with potential OTR, Walnut hills (dicey area), Clifton, Hyde Park, Mount adams, Pleasant Ridge, Oakley.

He is just as much as fault as you are, but he isn't under the time pressure to sell the house. 

Generally speaking though, there seems to be the consensus that in the next 2-5ish years, there will be some sort of market correction.In that same breath, it seems like there is ALWAYS this underlying pressure (not really the word I'm looking for...) to KEEP BUYING DEALS, almost regardless of what the current state of the market is.  

I just wanted to make sure to be able to line up my own financing in case he says no.At this point in time, I'm not really looking to partner with anyone because I don't want to have any pressures on me regarding expectations with this lot.

Depending on water pressure in the area or the number of units in a building, you could possibly have to sprinkle the building.