From what I gathered from my reading of the court papers, the current owner is not in arrears on their mortgage.

I also vote no-go.If everything goes perfectly, this deal on paper works, but we live in a world with vacancy, improvements, modernization, property management, and surprise issues (roof needing repair, needing a plumber, fixing the garage door,..)If your goal is to buy an investment, I can help you find better deals in the Twin Cities.if your goal is to buy something close to where you personally live at this point in time, you already have the answer.Again, I vote no-go.

You must have a paper trail every time simply because you never know when a late payment is going to end in a eviction. 

It was amazing is how often they'd walk in with a pile of papers, and just keep bidding on ONE property far, far, far over what the experienced buyers were willing to pay for it.

On paper sounds like a great idea but it can quickly go sour..

Like was mentioned use the tissue paper test.

They are choosing to use your rent money for other things, it's your job to enforce your lease to the letter, otherwise it is just a piece of paper with no real consequences. 

I put a layout drawing in my ads, IMO always a good way to make clear what is being advertised and waste no one's time.

You have to start with the site plan first and work the building plans to fit the site in terms of position, layout, access utilities etc.

Now how do the costs lay out?