You can set a minimum housing code as an addendum to the lease to 'set the tone' for your tenants.

Should I be going for forclosed / pre for closure with no equity and short sale with the bank from either door knocking or cold calling vs hunting down high equity deals with sellers who could possibly become motivated based off receiving a mailer or a phone call vs others like see a for sale buy owner sight , probate , tax liens/tax delinquent , housing code violations or absentee/vacant which varies in reasons it's self ?

I was leaning on this strategy to work on by door knocking or by calling vs hunting down high equity deals with owners who could possibly become motivated based off receiving mailers or my phone call vs others like calling for landlords or probates , tax liens / tax delinquent ,house code violations or absentee / vacant lists which vary in reasons for its self ?

@Craig Wilcox yes it has, there's so much info in here. currently im staying in the 61004 area code. im actually not selling anymore seller finance. im just trying to build my rental portfolio now. what kind of investing do you do?

It happens to be in the same ZIP code as West Hills, so Zillow uses comps in West Hills worth over $200k to comp my property which isn't a comparable property.

First place I'd start is with the City, specifically Code Enforcement.  

Their employees perform a variety of functions, including water quality and law enforcement, fire suppression, harvest regulation, and even timber industry promotion.

Keep this in mind the next time you find black mold or carpenter ants.Final thought on the owner not doing routine maintenance ... if the house if older than about 20 years then you need to check all the mechanicals (plumbing, electric, HVAC, low voltage) for code, quality and function.  

There is no replacement for looking up the city zoning code and seeing what it says.

My go forward strategy is take these homes that are in good condition, maybe even lightly renovate them and turn them into standard rentals, on the older ones there still may be resale or scrap value I'll take that on a case by case basis and then begin to Vet incoming tenants and establish a "housing code" so to speak going forward on appearance...this will be a multi year strategy as I can't just kick the old homes out and find great new tenants over night but I'm confident over 5 years I will greatly improve the appearance and there for the rent value