Put a good solid lid on it and a few bales of straw if freeze is a concern with and old tarp to keep dry. 

Thanks for making a effort to add humor to such a dry subject. 

When I buy a house that is totally trashed and I know I will be gutting the bathroom out, and the kitchen, and updating everything, I don't need some namby-pamby report with arrows pointing out that there is some dry rot on the front door, that I'm going to rip out anyway etc.

A historical price correction and lending drying up, created a one time opportunity that they jumped on, since equities were giving them very little a few years ago.

I knew going in that they were in bad shape and had a lot of rotted wood and beat up gutters.

I know as you are on boulder highway, heading a bit more north from there, it starts to get a little scarier...there are pockets out that way of good and bad - not so cut and dry.

Like @Todd Dexheimer said, those are probably going to be lower in these townhomes since HOA's often include exterior maintenance.Amber - my biggest reservation to buying the properties with HOA's would be the potential for jumps in the association fees effectively drying up future cashflow. 

I'd want to see whats under the dry wall at least.

@Todd Carson Welcome to BP and Cleveland and Akron both have great areas to invest in and really bad areas that will bleed you dry.

i'm sure in a lot of areas it takes at least ~$20/sqft just to get the house dried in (scale for comparison).