Can you send a couple other pictures for perspective from a bit of a distancing.I would call a couple foundation guys out for an opinion, to me it looks like the footer is sinking and needs some piers, we do these frequently, and owner gets a lifetime transferable warranty.

Rewey mentioned that investing for passive income in notes (performing notes/monthly cash flow) isn't great from a tax perspective, and you should use that in a tax deferred vehicle.Personally, this is exactly my plan. 

That, or I'm wrong and people and businesses will leave these cities, and they will decay relative to inflation.On the opposite perspective from a personal standpoint, many of my well-educated peers with high paying jobs and excellent career prospects are moving into town earning incomes in the $60-$100K range.

If you want to pace yourself ahead of your competition you could consider fresh data.

From the seller's perspective, they either sold me the house, or if I backed out at the last second they would have hypothetically gotten some free upgrades prior to putting it back on the market. 

@James DeRoest interesting perspective but you're not allowing yourself to see the bigger picture.Yep CL will help drive people into your sales funnel which leads them to a signed lease.

I don't mean to hijack the tread but just wanted to point out Troy Zsofka that asking about what else they have looked at is really smart if you know you are in the top tier from a marketing perspective.

they came up in the morning back in Napa valley in time for cocktails. and the deal was done.. we had 10 days to close .Yep, agreed ... different game, different rules, different number of zeros on purchase prices (for sure), overhead (perhaps), and profits (hopefully) ... and I'm not at all trying to "dis" that game (which I think you understand), it is just not one that I prefer to play, at least not at this time ... pluses and minuses to everything and there are more than one way for each of us to make it to our own personal Valhalla ... great discussion and I love your perspective Jay, which is why I always try to "stir the pot" with your comments a bit and thanks for allowing me to do that, but getting off topic at this point so I'll probably leave it at that for now ... 

Thanks for the perspective @Carolina E. and @Kaycee Wegener.

If the $30K house is a small  house on a small lot and the $130K house is  a large house on 40 acres then that helps put it in perspective.