I am in the West Coast, and I did assume that the title would have been clean.

For cash deals I like www.hudhomestore.com (HUD ~ lots of paperwork but clean title) or www.homepath.com (fannie mae ~ more paprwork than a hud and little negotiation room)Contracts, non-mls deals, tax sales, sheriff sales....  

Then one throws away the brush and spends a couple hours painstakingly cleaning one's boots and each ladder rung one climbed down on.

I actually cleaned that out without puking my guts out.

The tenants did not replace the furnace filters as per the tenant contract, so I had to have the AC coils cleaned.

Far less compliance issues, less regulations, code issues, etc. they are not the same.The only a few ways I know of to get 30+% out of a multi is to have it leased under a Section 42 project where you can have higher returns on YOUR money thanks to the funny money from the management fees and tax credits.Another way is to have a non-profit and run a half way house that is exempt from the rules all the other landlords have to play with and stick 8 or 10 residents in some slum at rents they would other wise never pay, but since they are court ordered to live there, they gladly pay higher rents.Another way is to flip an option on one, not really fair since you're not in title, but it is a return off a multi family.Another way would be to buy a discounted note on one, have to foreclose, clean it up and flip it.But, if you're talking about buying a multiat market vale and leasing it up, and just running the project, I doubt it very much.

They're little flying saucer shaped robots that clean his floors.

If you have paint flakes on the ground it either needs to be cleaned up or covered over with mulch.

He is concerned with what's going to happen with his credit when the short sale is over.Other than the foreclosure status on his credit everything else is clean and the payments are good.

Such as the costs to clean it up.