It's also important to me to not impose any liability on my parents if my plans go south.If you get outside of the box a bit and both your parents and you are comfortable with it, then you may be able to still arrange such a thing without inheriting now ... for example, you could "manage it" for them rather than "inherit it" from them, and may even be able to have them pay you a reasonable management fee for that (double check) ... then in the end inherit all you've managed with the stepped up basis on an expanded and improved portfolio (assuming you did a good job managing).

Less if they have significant deferred maintenance or will be needing large capital improvements soon.

Instead, I have called a few appraisers and asked what improvements I really should be making.  

It sounds like you have worked with people, so you could probably manage the tenant issues as well.If being a landlord is not your goals, your background may make you well suited for a live-in flip, where you buy a fixxer-upper property and make the improvements while you live there (forced appreciation); then after a couple years, you can take advantage of the tax free sale.Both of those strategies combine with something you may be looking at and need anyway--a place to live of your own.

This shows what type of tenant might be ideal for the space and if they are national, strong regional,or mom and pop in nature.What type of tenant determines structure and negotiation of the lease with tenant improvement credits,etc.I would not mess around with some cheap generic lease bought from Office Depot.

But I see the area shifting and I believe slowly it will improve.  

@Pratik P. thanks for your plan, definitely seems legit if you bring lots of leads, i think the one that deal with the leads can be VA , and if the calls are recorded its better for improving.  

I made a lot of improvements to the home.

Review all his processes, systems and books (annual rent roles, expenses) to determine if you can increase occupancy (90->98%), improve the property rents (below market?)

As you mentioned some struggles with Quickbooks you could spend a few dollars for a bookkeeper/CPA (with real estate experience) to help get your numbers in order.After assessing the performance of each property, you should be able to then identify areas for improvement of cash flow for each investment.