I'm looking for some guidance on how to go about doing this since my contractor quoted that the job would take 1-2 weeks and during that time there would be no access to the unit because there isn't enough room to put a temporary stairway in while they are building.

Evaluate historical and current vacancy rates, aiming for decreasing trends.Demographics: For younger populations, focus on proximity to parks and schools.

This allows our buyers to purchase the property, make the necessary improvements, and then choose to either rent it at market rate or sell it.Selling a property without providing at least two exit strategies for the buyer significantly decreases our pool of buyers.Feel free to reach out, you could send me the numbers and I can give you my opinion on what would be a good deal to a buyer with keeping the tenants. 

Hopefully it's temporary but the return rate is now below 2%.

Among the top 50 U.S. apartment markets, 17 with over 2.8% inventory growth experienced a 2.2% decrease in rents.

I would seek out another CPA in the meantime to see if there is someone else that will align with your taxable income, and you can benefit from using that person by decreasing your taxable income this year and going forward. 

If we put up a temporary wall during construction, the city inspector will question why there is a wall there; unless I can make the claim that it's currently being used by a tenant?

Rents have decreased this past 6 months here so you may be surprised. 

Sinking interest rates and signaling from fed of rate decreases has pushed buyers back in to the market. 

Haha...While no one has ever asked me to discount rents because of furniture, they do ask for a big decrease in rent sometimes.