Before this, I’ve come across several older multi-family buildings that lack central AC (tenants use window units), don’t have in-unit washer/dryers, or have smaller square footage.Being from Boston, these issues wouldn’t normally be deal breakers for me, but my realtor mentioned that they might be for tenants in Columbus.

Normally, you would only depreciate based on the life of the equipment, which could be as little ten years nowadays as a recent article mentioned new refrigerators now last 10 years or less.However, for taxes, you can do a section 179 election for equipment purchased for less than $1,160.

However, I mostly want more free time to pursue other lifestyles.

I would normally ask for that before I put in an offer or the offer. 

Have you found that capex, vacancy and repair rates to be normal (10/10/8 percent) or are they higher in the area ?

The company doesn't really have a "credit score" or "eviction history" so I'm thinking about asking for 1.5x or 2x monthly rent as a deposit (we normally do 1x month rent) just like I would for a tenant without established credit history.Thanks!

These are affected in my simple mind by interest rates and the cost of entry into new home market and there are less specs than normal in some markets for the same reason. 

State law normally requires to lease to automatically transfer with the property.

Each person has different goals, expectations, lifestyles, resources, etc. so we really need to look at the overall picture to see if this makes sense compared to other options available. 

You won't be scaring away the seller, this is a completely normal thing to request and your broker should be the one prodding the seller's side for this info up front (especially if the seller's side hasn't provided it already with the marketing material at the very least).