Too many newbies read one book, or spend a couple of hours reading and thing they know it all.

We had all the RIGHT puzzle pieces sitting in our laps (great realtor, carpenters, and mortgage broker as close friends and family) so we just had to simply put them together (with a lot of hard work and having a family of 4 living in one room at a time for a couple years.)We are now moving to Roslyn, WA and hope to start a similar (although not as extensive) project there and also try to acquire some SFHs in Kittitas County to start our REI education/climb to billions. :) This feels like bragging, but it was a lot of market luck, hard work, amazing friends, and a wife with an eye for staging.

Their last couple of tenants left a mess and the house needed a fair amount of TLC just to be passible.  

The house is a HUD in University Heights, and was listed a couple days ago.

I agree with a couple of things already mentioned: DIY or hire someone to do regular perimeter spray in each unit quarterly.

Before you jump in, I suggest that you join a couple of local networking groups that strictly focus on multifamily to get a sense of what is happening in the multifamily market. 

I don't expect Scenario 1 to happen easily, but if we can have a couple conversations and spend a few bucks to get us close to that scenario, we'll be far better off than if we take a confrontational stance and motivate him to push us all into Scenario 2.In any case, we'll get something started tomorrow.

Just as I'd prefer to blacklist them as a renter and/or as a buyer, I'm sure the feeling is mutual.

I had one partner who bought a couple of small trailer parks and then continued to just buy single lots all over the three County area with boxes on them.

However, if you are connected in the community and know you can get a couple quality tenants, why not rent it out and pull some equity out if you want to free up some cash?