In many cases, it is well meaning and experienced operators who begin by fudging numbers to "make the quarter" with the full intent of making up for the fudge in a subsequent quarter who in no time at all get neck deep in a Ponzi scheme.   

That’s a deep hole to dig out of. 

She placed wallpaper over huge wholes in the wall, light fixtures no longer work, she had huge rugs over the hard wood floor which have dozens of deep gouges and needs complete refinishing. 

Maybe after diving even deeper some may be okay with this...but my whole point of the post was it would be super tough for anyone to make it work and deep down the brokers/sellers know and someone may hop in the ring and end up finding out.  

I get lost at times when people go deep about Cap Rates, GRM, and figuring out the return on investment.

This typically equates to how deep of a well is included in their price.  

Does anyone have any advice on what to look out for or maybe biggerpockets can do a deep dive into purchasing an older multifamily.

I agree that 'getting a good CPA' is the best strategy, I am more interested in understanding rules and regulations at a deep level myself so that I can identify 'a good CPA' and be just as knowledgeable.

I figured that was the case, just haven't dug too deep so appreciate you confirming. 

Current zoning and local regs are not compatible, you need deep pockets to make it even operational.