Many municipalities/utility providers are offering rebates on water heaters and other energy using products to help offset the cost of replacement. 

The biggest gotchas might be if the ceiling is low or the room(s) don't meet minimum size/geometry requirements,  the building requires a fire sprinkler system and that unit doesn't have one,  or if the city decides the unit must meet some kind of energy efficiency standards.   

Their online reviews are about 2 out of 5 stars across platforms (if you're in the Bay Area, it's the place that references a local East Bay mountain in the company name), because so many of those "potential" customers don't actually make it to the closing table, lots of frustration, pissed off people, escrow fallouts, allegations of bait and switch (14 day locks are priced better than 30 day or 45 day, so they never lock upfront, meaning market shifts hose their clients at the 11th hour half the time...), lost earnest money deposits, etc.

So if you don’t have the time and energy to take on a second job (which it inevitably becomes even just viewing and analyzing properties, making offers, etc. never mind once you actually own it and then the real work begins), I would honestly just stick with something truly passive like syndications, REITs, or plain old high dividend yield aristocrat stocks/ mutual funds, vanguard, SPDR etc.  

The energy sector is the driver which will be hitting some speed bumps here soon. 

Plus if the property was in a bad energy consumption shape and being repaired by buyer, government will reduce big part of transaction cost.

That being said, I've worked with several agents who had good online reviews but didn't turn out to be good agents, so simply working with the agent with the most 5-star reviews isn't fool-proof. 

I appreciate your time and energy in helping me to figure this out. 

Sometimes the stars align and it happens.

In the ionia area i would recommend Lisa Coe with 5 star Real Estate, She is amazing.