– This is crucial if you don’t want your project to drag on forever.

This project just went on forever.....  

It's nice to be optimistic that it will go on forever like @Scott Trench mentions, or realtors in general, but don't get caught in the hype. 

(This last option might happen at some point anyway, because that house has been empty forever.) 

Many times landlords have ran the properties for years and they are TIRED.Based on all the listings I have had in Multifamily and the stories they tell me I would pay the fee for a great property manager.The benefit to owning a 50 unit or greater is usually you can land a 5% property management fee and the company will have a system in place versus a manager doing 1 house who is "winging it".Saturation rate for the area (competition) for your properties product mix and amenities will be key as well as proximity to jobs,transit,restaurants, medical facilities,etc.I don't worry that the property is vacant.Even in high crime areas it's all relative to price.I would not recommend buying in high crime areas for a novice.I have investor groups who do nothing but this and buy really cheap.Eventually these nodes will be redeveloped and cleaned out if you buy right but you have to know the city plans and intricate workings of the area.Don't listen to a seller telling you when occupied it rented for 600 a unit.Base your numbers off of what the market will be doing after your rehab.If rents were at 600 a unit but based on data have declined 1 percent a month and rents now are at 480 then when rehabbed in another 4 months your lease up might be at 460.Look at the big apartments to see what kind of specials and concessions they are running in the local area to lease up.We could all go on forever with suggestions.You really need to work with someone who has intimate knowledge of the area you want to invest in.When doing vacant or development deals the biggest mistake I see developers and investors make is to do rosy projections that 80% of the time do not go as planned.Plan for the worst but hope for the best.

They are probably in undesirable areas, will never appreciate in value, always need repairs, take forever to rent and involve pulling teeth to collect the rent.I have bought the majority of my deals from the MLS.

The first few seem to take forever for us "conservative" types because we tend to be cautious and it takes a while to get the first few purchases working to pay for our next purchases.

In any case, you will not live there forever, so this is a good way to analyze the deal.

Once I bought the sprayer, I felt like an idiot for ever using a brush.

The property manager was a piece of work and had a shifty contract that stated should the property be listed on MLS he would be paid a percentage of all rent collected and he had managed it forever.