I mean lipstick on a pig.  

Some providers do "lipstick on a pig" construction that looks nice but doesn't fix all the deferred maintenance issues.

I could right away tell they had slapped lipstick on it and like Jon Klaus guessed this is definitely a black hole and cannot afford right now.

Anything you do superficially is just lipsticking a pig, and I can't tell you what works and is worth doing in your market. 

The supposed "tax benefits" are often used to slap some lipstick on a loser rental.The reality is that good rental properties produce taxable income, even after deprecation.The common claim is that the passive losses from a loser rental can be used to offset other income.

I think it’s best to keep putting lipstick on older places because construction on them sucks.

Investors that were sold a property in a rough area with a lipstick rehab aren't going to be happy with any PM.

Most put lipstick on it and claim (newly renovated) and then sell off a dog of a property to an out of town investor.

Hes selling it for $50K and the tenants are all brand new due to his "lipstick" he just put on the property.

My profit would have been double had I slapped lipstick on a pig and called the substandard work good enough.