The easy lipstick rehabs are a thing of the past for now in most areas.

So you're gambling on the future, and in the meantime you're a landlord (although obviously you have experience with that).You could do some rehab, but the problem with putting lipstick on a pig (if you'll pardon the crude expression) is that you have a good chance of picking the wrong shade lipstick.  

If you do a lipstick flip (new paint, new carpet, new landscape, etc) you will likely not have anything major that was not detected (so long as the electrical, plumbing, roof, foundation, and HVAC was inspected).When you do major rehabs where you are moving walls, taking things down to he studs, room additions, etc, you almost always run into additional costs (demo costs were more than anticipated, new plumbing and or wiring needed, longer than expected rehab timeframe, etc).I have flipped a lot of homes in price ranges from $300k+ to $4M and I was able to flip my first 30 or so without any losses.

Not knowing the class of your investment make it difficult to determine where you can take this property but you defnatly need to upgrade your tenant base, lipstick reno, higher rents and higher screening standards. 

There are a some people that take advantage of out of state investors and slap lipstick on a pig- so you gotta watch out for that and making sure you are working with a good team.

I am open to homes that need a little lipstick, but nothing too intense as I am out of state.  

I agree with Lane Kawaoka and Jay Hinrichs $30k houses most likely are like putting lipstick on a pig (there's even a Ben Leybovich article about this, I'm pretty sure!)

In this economic environment my next property will be a lipstick rehab buy and hold.

I bought the duplex I live in when we were already in the life -- I had done multiple renovations and lipsticks flips on properties and apartments myself, had more my basic stock of tools in place, had my library of how-to books, had a few friends in the business I could ask for advice when needed.My over-under duplex was built between 1923 and 1927 for a local heiress, so I know exactly what it's like to live in a 100-year-old duplex.

As a full time flipper/investor I take pride in the quality, design and type of renovations I do as I do not do the “lipstick on a pig” renovations that many investors do.