State laws will govern, and most have a provision for a note becoming unenforceable if no collection attempts were made and documented for a certain number of years.  8 years is a long time.

So basically my options are 1) fire PM, lose tenant, 2) fire PM, keep tenant for a fee of $7303) attempt to sue

Sometimes investors get greedy and attempt to buy properties in questionable neighborhoods because the rent to purchase price ratio is better.

Someone with little to no credit was attempting to establish some and so has several inquiries.

We have seen sales where the instrument is treated like a note and the Seller and Buyer of the instrument attempt to simply assign the CFD/LC and fail to actually convey a deed between each other.  

The thought was to jump start the REI portfolio in an attempt to reach a tipping point & replace a significant portion of our current monthly income with the added bonus of equity & possible appreciation. 

Currently in the market for an investment property, but like the OP, still trying to learn enough so I can attempt to make a good purchase.

I recently picked up a couple of books on the subject and made the decision to attempt to buy a quadplex here in the Los Angeles area (valley).Real estate is a very tough market to understand and infiltrate.

You add value to real property, many ways to do that but you need to learn real estate before attempting to deal in real estate, you don't learn real estate on BP forums or from gurus, get a text book Realtors use to pass the state examination.

I think the bogus numbers are more a matter of ignorance and limited experience rather than any conscious attempt to rip people off.