In my opinion you're far better off buying on the secondary market and investing that energy in needed improvements, especially if they involve curb appeal! 

The responsibilities are written into the lease and I go over it with the tenants.With multi's especially on the city, tenants have a tenant mentality, and customarily they pay the rent, expect the sidewalks to be swept, garbage taken to the curb, grass if any mowed.

The properties in the surrounding area are new townhomes and much nicer curb appeal homes in the 250-300K range.

I think this will have a lot nicer curb appeal- see photo below.  

Curb appeal (landscaping, entryway, etc.)4.

I'm just wondering how far you want to scale up and at what point do you want to hire more out and automize. hey william,all good questions. i have not read that book, but i will see if my library has it. i actually do not have a monster day job, just a worker bee engineer without any dreams to climb the corporate ladder.i do not have a rentals limit, i just whatever fits my criteria and my style. by style, i mean, the house needs to have a curb appeal and be in the right area. there are TONS of houses i passed on because they were either "ugly, weird layout, or in an area that wont attract the tenants i target. if i have the money at the moment, if i like the house and if my crew is running low on "projects", i just get it. i have been holding a few houses for the past 8-9 months just vacant in case the market dries up and i need a large project to work on.I have not much work on the houses for awhile. i still help out if i have a few hrs off here and there, but my crew keeps me in check by working only 8-5 and no weekends. so it's easy to just check on the project when they are not there and since they are not there to work, i just leave. i have a good team now, but do not have anyone that can oversee everything like i do. maybe it's because it's all mine and i know it inside/out, but no one will care for it as much as i care and know everything about it. i have spreadsheets that show purchase price, move in, move out, any changes in rent, if they have dogs, what insurance i use, when's the garbage day, what appliances came with which house, water payments for the year, furnace filter size, etc, etc... i update those as the "issues" happen. no one can do a good job unless i pay them a lot of money.my current payroll is ~120k per year, all sustained by the business.i think about quitting my day job often, and i certainly do not need it. but it's easy money, and the biggest fear i have is rentals drying up, like they have been. then what am i going to do?

I figured If I was able to get the property for under 200k and do about 25-33k in renovations changing the concept of the lay in the home and adding another bath room and having the roof done adding come curb appeal would bring this homes value to about 319-329k.

Usually, it is the tenant if it is an accommodation that is made for their personal space but it could be the landlord if it is a common area like parking or access curbs in commercial units.

I did a curb appeal mockup for you (but I think it's more than curb appeal), If you have for instance a proper class C apartment complex competing with you, the layout will be more home-like vs. this house cut into two parts with less than desirable floor plans.People don't pay Cadillac prices for a Pinto, but a fixed up Pinto will bring more than one with dents in it.On the plus side, it's clean, the neighborhood looks great, I like the backyard as a feature, I like the garage as a feature, I like the "STORM Cellar" as a feature re Tornadoes which apartments do not have, and it looks like at least one unit is ready for washer and dryer inside the unit, which apartments sometimes do not have.You may have to do more to the interior to close renters on the place if you can't do it as is (spend $$$).Here's a curb appeal mockup, I just chose a paint color at random, but white might work better in the neighborhood.I doubt just curb appeal will make it the most desirable rental in the area though, but it's some food for thought.I like this house, it has potential.Right click open in a new tab makes it bigger. 

I will admit that I tend to be impatient, so I am trying to curb that tendency.