There are not too many things that cant be fixed.Of course it is a personal choice and I believe Jason has stated he also uses an inspector, however, my pint to use one is not because I don;t know how to spot things wrong with a home, but I like to have a second pair of eyes who spends 3-4 hours going over in detail all the mechanicals, roof, foundation, etc, plus all the little things they write up.

To get into the property earlier, you could ask to tour the common areas, mechanical rooms, and a few vacant units before you make an overture.Once you have done your initial analysis based upon the pro forma / memorandum of offering from the Vendor and decided to pursue the deal, you will either submit an offer of purchase an sale directly (on a small property or straight forward deal that required little additional diligence) or you will submit a Letter of Intent (LoI) outlining your intended offer, the materials you require to complete diligence and the timeline to an agreement of purchase and sale.In the materials you will request from the Vendor, will be information on all existing leases and any other agreements between the landlord and a tenant.  

Tenant is an auto mechanic.

Mechanicals were in good working order but cosmetics were a mess.

The houses all have the same pattern it seems with flooring needed to be replaced, painting in and out, yard clean up, and usually some mechanical repairs such as toilets and kitchen faucets replaced, etc.This 6k to 10k fix up cost is pretty predictable and how much we paid for the house doesn't seem to have much impact.

hey eric i started investing in albany ny. my first property i purchased cost me 60k i net 14.400$ a year which is over 20% i then did a cash out refinance and purchased the second one only coming out of pocket 7500$ not even 8 months later.. many people would stay away from bad neighborhoods and tell you theres no inflation and bad tenants but the truth is if your looking to hold for income its the best place to look you will make your return back sometimes between 3-5 years depending on purchase price and if the house needs work. i rent to section 8 and have no problems getting my money every month theres good tenants and bad but if you dont rely on the cash right away you can find decent tenants. think about it if all the mechanics are functioning and somewhat new you have a few years until your full return then if something breaks it comes out the rent money that month. i tried looking in nice neighborhoods for multifams and the numbers these days dont make sense you have to wait 30 years to pay off that house. my goal is to purchase 2 of these houses a year and keep going 

I am currently majoring in Mechanical Engineering with a possibly business minor.

Although it's mechanical it's the best overview.

You could do a JV and put a mechanics lien to protect your interest.

You'll learn the answers to questions you don't even know to ask that way and start to learn all the mechanisms behind the machine.