He showed me the property and I really liked it but wasn't quite ready to pull the trigger.

As a fringe market of the Seattle metro, we saw rental rates drop and we had one of the two renters lose their income source which triggered a string of negative financial events.

Here's an old BP thread dealing with your question: https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/311/topics/485427-how-do-you-ethically-invest-in-a-disaster-zoneYour post triggered a memory I had of a Wall Street Journal article that sounds like what your mother was talking about. 

She adamantly declined and just wanted to be done with the property because the house triggered some bad experiences.

However, perhaps I'm overthinking all this and need to pull the trigger.

@Jason Ma the one thing a CEO does best is makes decisions and pulls the trigger, efficiently and accurately as possible.

I’ve been running every deal I can in my area and am really excited to pull the trigger.

Then pull the trigger. 

Pull the trigger and help.

After about 3 years of listening to the BP Podcasts, my wife and I finally decided to pull the trigger on a rental property and had our offer accepted!