I am now looking for a General Contractor that can come out and evaluate a potential major issue.

Your experience underscores the importance of me communicating with my cleaning staff regarding photographing any damages they notice, and making sure I have proper documentation for all services (which is not only beneficial for potential claims, but also for tax time!).  

As @Brian Adams said, make sure this is a deal that is worth the potential expense. 

So any way you can improve operations (raising rents, reducing vacancies and expenses) will have a compounding effect on how your business is valued (code for forcing equity), allowing you to potentially refinance and get cash out of the property to use toward future acquisitions.Tenant experience. 

Further more, you can go through our forums https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums and you can find some helpful advises there or can post your queries there so potential members can answer to you.

First things first... figure out whether you are looking at a foreclosure (owners still own it and are potentially still living in it) or an REO (property has already gone through the foreclosure process and is now owned by the bank).

Also buying one and living in it makes it your primary residence allowing you to potentially get a lower interest rate and a lower down payment. 

Below are some things you may wish to consider, as to which Corporate Enity is best, for your Business Model as well as your REI Goals and objectives.Flipping PropertiesIf the primary objective of your real estate business, or one of your real estate businesses, is to buy, potentially fix up an existing property and resell it within one year, the Internal Revenue Service can consider that to be an active trade or business.

While I believe the laws are federal, and therefore the same everywhere, a local professional with extensive experience in the area will be able to tell you based on the type, age and location of the property what your potential risk would be and the minimums required by law to have it taken care of, if necessary.

There's a lot more potential end buyers than I anticipated.