If you are concerned about shifting or foundation sliding issues, I have sourced a piering contractor that supports the foundation to bedrock.

If that is the case you can shift those costs to the tenant. 

Admittedly, I have not done further research into sheriff sales since I've decided to shift my strategy to investing out of state shortly after this thread.

I'm a bartender, so I could increase my budget by picking up a few extra shifts a month, but this will cost time. 

Franlky, I think those days are long gone, but properties may well exist, say in rural areas or small towns, where competition is not as stiff.My point is, you need to understand business, aspects of legal issues, types of businesses, insurance issues, financing, traffic counts, location and population shifts and the economic impact of government these days.

He did fix the damage but deck has shifted due to Ike, and needs a quote to fix it.

Avoid the East and far west (Tallassee) side since the tenant and maintenance quality of those areas have shifted toward the lower end.

I'm an Agent in Denver working with quite a few investors both in and out of state and I've seen a pretty big shift from Multifamily to Single Family investing by both mom & pop investors as well as institutional money YTD compared to 2017.

Now some of this burden could be shifted if I had a property manager vs self.... but not all of it.

Once the client/investor has realized a comfortable level of success, which is defined differently for all investors, then at that time it may be appropriate to shift more assets into a real estate portfolio.Short answer.