Tell the tenant they need to pay by a date you feel comfortable with and stick to it(Fri or Mon would be best).

After speaking with an attorney and reading this guide, I feel comfortable with the situation.

@Rodney Kuhl , if you're comfortable with the size of the investment, I definitely recommend not a SFR or duplex, but a fourplex!

Tell them $100K liability is good if they feel comfortable it will cover all of their assets.Thanks again.- Dave

My personal opinion is to grow your portfolio elsewhere, then once you are comfortably wealthy come back and buy your beach house!!

We have lots of aged building stock here - Victorian or older - that can often be found at relatively descent prices due to the fact they are energy pigs.While it is true that a kitchen or bathroom installed today will be a 20yr old kitchen or bath when it comes time to sell, adding insulation, improved electrical, plumbing, ventilation ... all those "under the hood" type of renovations will bring comfort and health benefits to your tenants and operational benefits to your bottom line.

In practice, I have been doing both (1) and (2), and attorney is comfortable with (2), though I know that Bill doesn't like the approach, and he makes some good points.

The only idea I'd have would be to contact the current owner, who may or may not be very excited to discuss the auction where he's going to officially lose his building, but the current owner is actually someone we know, not real well but more like a friend of a friend and I just don't feel comfortable approaching him about this building he's about to lose.

Like most advice I got, if I can generate cash flow or income greater than my current job to help me sustain then I'd feel more comfortable.

I guess the way I look at it as far as going into rougher areas is that if I hire a PM (which I plan on doing) who already manages a ton of properties in the iffy/inner ring suburbs I feel comfortable with it.