I have had this happen twice in 5 years.The biggest issues that are more common with poor PM's are bad tenant screening and lack of inspections.  

Hello, my realtor found a tenant for me who appeared to have high income and great  references. come to find out that all are falsified. she stated she worked for a government agency and that was false, reason I know is I found her on facebook and she is self employed - WITH BAD REVIEWS AND ONE OF THEM WANTS TO SERVE HER - YIKES,  I can also see who she used as references, which are her FACEBOOK FRIENDS -NOT HER EMPLOYER. 

My question is would it be a bad move to purchase a home and rent it out while we wait for the neighborhood to improve?

You can maybe get one in NE or SE DC or PG county but then your commute will be a disasterCondos are not bad but you will not get as much appreciation.

NJ should not be as bad as here in Denver or where you are in LA, but its still a process. 

Black pipe is not too bad, it's just the labor and knowledge to do it that really gets you.If you have the aptitude to do this, you can go for it.Option 2: Meter it yourself and manage the billing yourself ---> We looked into this but it just didn't sound like something we wanted to mess with and even with this, it would heavily depend on your existing configuation as far as the cost/feasibility. 

If the surrounding neighborhood, is bad, the tenants will likely be as well, and that will more-than-likely ruin this project for you.

It might satisfy your curiosity, but it's not likely to influence negotiations- at least I would not recommend you use that number for anything.

Any town with 150,000 people has a plethora of good and bad options.

Bad news is that they’re not the most desirable businesses (Dunken and Walmart and Ross, etc.).