This sounds awful on the face of it, but it could be a fair market transaction if the building needed a lot of work and the buyer took it "as is." There is a lot we don't know.  How much was the net to Mrs. Collins? The property taxes alone would be well over $1000 a month based on an assessment of nearly $800,000. Did the rents include utilities? What was the cost for insurance, yard care, a possible on site manager,  painting, carpet cleaning, etc. It could add up. Then again maybe it didn't. Not many properties are that overvalued by the assessor.