You won't know the ARV correctly or the repair costs so your budgets will be crap.

You should only do cosmetic repairs.

So at a  minimum you need to be firm that the rent is enough to cover your expenses (including insurance, PM fee, capital reserves for repairs)I'd go on Facebook Marketplace and on any Facebook Groups you find for KSU Housing and post it there (at a rent rate this is actually covering your expenses) and see if you get response. 

There is always the risk that after you do the repair, the the system fails quickly after that. 

The repairs required by Section 8 after the initial inspection were pretty minimal, but I've heard that there are grants and certain lending programs that were available for Section 8 landlords (such as the Community Investment Program).

I am trying to finance my repair and renovation for a duplex investment of 2500 sq ft property that I recently purchased.

IN case the house you bought needs urgent repairs because of some natural events .

This is a "repairs".   

Which is better in my situation - doing repairs myself (possibly $50k) and increase the likelihood of selling (not incurring holding cost of interest on HELOC and PITI on 30 yr/mortgage).

what about capex, repairs, vacancy, property management?