I'm happy to invest in improvement, but concerned about fundamental issues with the buildings that may be more difficult to address. 

The issue with those areas is high crime rate.

The obstacle I’m working past most is being employed full time for two companies, so it’s a logistical issue of time.

Rick Sands handled the issue horribly, folks lost a lot of money and I still have never received an explanation from the company as to what happened - but furthermore what THEY were going to do about it.Im using cozy now - and it does have a few shortcomings compared to erent.

I think the issue is not to poll CPAs, but to talk to YOUR CPA. 

Ok I'm new to the field but u already invested Nd have two properties my biggest issues has been the contractors their quality of work has been a nightmare.

As long as you have a process, it goes pretty quick.I go through a house and do a quick visual inspection to identify specific issues I want to document.

If this is an investment and you just have a few properties, then it's a grey area and many folks would advise that you don't need to issue 1099s. 

You can technically avoid the issue if you pick a contractor that's incorporated.

Having a RE attorney work with the seller's RE attorney is not an issue and as long as the RE attorney is competent and communicative all should go well.But I'll still give some advice from what I've learned the hard way: if there are any contingencies such as repairs (usually discovered and agreed on after the inspection) make certain all repairs/contingencies are completed prior to closing - and literally go and check to make certain these repairs were actually done.