While it certainly may be price (I don't know anything about your area), I agree with Ophelia about the general nature of the pictures -- they don't do the property justice.

Not easy and may be costly to do, but can be done.ANYWAY - if there ARE procedures for the creation of the HOA and the responsible parties are not following through with doing so you may want to consider holding their feet to the fire so you don't have the responsibility of managing money that doesn't belong to you.

This is the only way to even begin determining what your risk is.The governing documents will hopefully outline the procedures for making repairs to shared utilities such as water lines.

Used to be, a REO was distressed in terms of ownership, and the discount was less for the distress of the property, and more for the as-is nature of the sale.

Landlord tenant law varies by state.So I can't comment on the laws of your state.I will tell you here in Georgia I can't just say "get out" if they don't meet my demands.Generally if the 1 year term expires then the tenant is month to month with the exact provisions that were in the 1 year lease.Here if I my lease was ending and I wanted to raise rents then I would need to give the tenant 30 days notice.If the tenant did not agree to the new amount then they can inform the landlord they will not agree to the new amount.Then I have to give the tenants 60 days to find another place PROVIDED that they pull the full rent and comply with all the terms of the lease in place that was converted to month to month.So you just can't kick them out and certain procedures have to be followed.

Moving to Cleveland to embark on this real estate adventure while most may think is insanity, was very natural for me and I am learning so much here.  

Part of it is probably just my nature, but I'm not someone who dwells on negativity for too long.

Originally posted by @Linda Weygant:Bear in mind that if you are charging way below market rate for rent, the IRS may (in the event of an audit) impute a market rental rate into your income since you are renting to family.Thanks for sharing this specifically, as it's family the natural inclination is the keep their expenses as low as possible as long as we are covered.

Since you know their natural gas bill is not being paid, better check to see if they are behind in their other utilities as well.

Recently our tenant reported a malfunctioning AC unit that requires repairs.  The tenant stated she was out of town for a week.  She wanted the repairs done before she comes back.  She said it was not her responsibili...