We barely scratched together 7 deals that year, 3 of which made no money and by the end of 2016 we were $80,000 in operating debt but were high on optimism.

I ran some numbers and I can just barely break even on cash flow keeping him in it.

I tried getting the serial numbers off the homes, I found most of them but one is barely readable and another can not be found at all.

I live in a city that can change from middle class to lower class pretty quick and they don't use newly renovated comps, they use the bare minimum as long as its inhabitable.They also start charging higher interest rates and origination fees for more expensive projects, and even add a $1,600 single purpose entity fee.

It ultimately put me in a bad financial position that I am barely got out of.  

Moving rents to 950 for the living unit rentals makes the 1% still work, and the 50% test becomes $2,250/2 = 1,125*12 = $13,500/0.08 makes it $168,750, so it barely passes.So, I ran the APOD (not exhaustive on a 2U+extra), see the below.This is only one approach, and it may all make sense for what you are trying to do, but it should give you a starting place to figure out what you might want to do. 

Please bare with me and I thank anyone who can provide me any insights.My wife and I are looking to purchase (our first, technically) a small factory building next door to the home we currently rent.

So on one hand he's neglecting the house but on the other he's doing the bare minimum upkeep.The owner owns the property free and clear and has never put it on the market.

The town home barely cashflow, which is ok.

.- how it looks should barely be relevant.