When investing in an off-market deal, is it better to purchase properties vacant or is it still a good idea to purchase a property even with paying tenants inside of it? 

When dealing with service providers, you can easily be shocked if you did not discuss pricing upfront, and even if you did you could easily be shocked - LOL.What you needed was a letter of engagement spelling out the fees that will or may be incurred - in detail.  

We do have some luck with Booking.com with about 8-12% of our bookings from there.You can also invest in StayFi and market for direct bookings to previous guests

I encourage people to invest either where they live, or within an hour or so, because there are so, so many threads on BP from folks who bought a random OOS property just to "get a deal" and immediately regretted it.

If your property offers an individual the best deal for the price, she will rent from you.

Reach out to me and I’ll waive the escrow fee on your first deal.

After some rentals, flips and wholesale deals I landed on private money lending.

Financially this deal makes sense; however, I am concerned with the safety aspect… I must live there for a year since I am looking for an FHA loan.There are areas close by that i know can have criminal activity but I am uncertain about this specific area (1-2 mile radius).

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

It's probably best to start by reading up on some books on the subject as well as networking with others here who have done these types of deals already.