@Chris K. when we purchased it 5 years ago we were just starting and slapped lipstick on it.

Another expression for this is "lipstick on a pig."

I have a client with which I am working currently who is running into a wall as far as ability to complete construction work on time.He has about 30 flips, predominately outside of the major metro areas of Arizona and several hundred building lots in these same areas.Things have ramped up quickly recently and he really needs to be doing 10-15 new starts a month and complete 5 or so flips of various complexities(everything from just lipstick to complete gut jobs) in order to keep up.

Especially since their buying strategy, which is ran by an algorithm, is to buy at market value, throw a little lipstick on the house, and sell at a higher price.

Pretty big assumptions being made here. 50K in profit on a short term add lipstick flip is going to be hard to find without structural or major issues.

There is no way I was going to "put lipstick on a pig" and rent the thing out, potentially putting my tenants at risk for health issues.

This whole "tax advantage" business is lipstick that gets put on crappy deals to make them more attractive.That 750 hours is the minimum.  

I see the trash areas as old buildings getting lipsticked the refi out the money and downturn they go into default again.

In most of those posts we have no way of knowing what percentage of those 100 units are quality and which are pigs with lipstick.

The challenge that I have is wanting to correct all the DIY and lipstick on a pig improvements that have been done throughout the years.