What you'll need from the estate seller is documentation confirming her as the person in charge with sufficient caoacity, powers and authority to sell to you.

There's no shame in turning things over to a professional.I had a client many years ago tell me that, as an electrician, any time he spent where he wasn't twisting wire was losing money.He tried and tried to save money by doing his books himself and it always cost him lost sleep, lost relaxation time, headaches and a big accounting bill at the end of the year anyway since I had to fix some pretty big errors.In the end, he opted to complete his own billing in the software and then hand everything over to me monthly to update for him and hand back.Lots of people assume that accounting is just adding and subtracting - how hard can it be?  

No matter the deal it must have sufficient cash flow to make it worthwhile. 

It is right to be cautious, but for a relationship to work over the long-term and for you to be able to sleep at night, you are going to have to put a higher level of trust and faith into the company you choose to work with.  

I have different levels of respect for time share types, but depends on what they do, not all  are on the front lying lines....I mean sales lines.Financial underwriting of a medical doctor, especially a young one is often seen under compensating factors due to the expected income rather than so much to today's earnings, so long as funds are available, in other words, much higher ratios are accepted since the remaining discretionary income is more than sufficient to live on.

Also, is there a particular format that's commonly used for a "investment criteria" sheet, or is it sufficient to state it like this: Class: B or C apartment community (not already renovated)Number of units: 100+Cap rate: around 10% or higherHas one or more “Value-Plays”No structural problemsNo significant environmental issues

These two approaches to value are not as reliable as the market approach if a sufficient market exists.

People with sufficient income move from areas with high crime to areas with lower crime.

I'm still losing sleep over it. 

.- Then we need to offer sufficient due diligence in order to create peace of mind in any prospective buyers.