On top of considering the bonuses of mortgage paydown, tax advantages, and appreciation (even if just as a tiebreaker for appreciation since its not guaranteed), you also need to dig deeper into the second question.

AS for owner occ homes or new construction.. folks buy those on need and emotion.. not on financial return calcs.. 

However, if I had a software that preliminarily analyzed the current market, I'd be able to focus on deeper analysis of specific properties.I apologize for all of the context!

You are also working with less emotional clients and ones that are making more of a financial decision verses worrying about the color of the walls or what kind of flooring is in the living room.

Gone are the days when a property was offered up for  no more than the amount of taxes owed, now days it has become a bidding process and as in any auction enviroment people tend to get emotional about their bidding and become quite impractical, and irrational buyers

It is possible to get one more floor but it gets a little trickier putting in a deeper foundation with potential underpinning.I used an FHA construction loan which is similar to the FHA203k renovation loan but they allow you to build ground up new construction for 3.5% down and you can even roll in the price of the lot.Feel free to reach out with any questions, I'd be happy to help!

Clean it up, rent it at market rate, and pat yourself for making a "business" decision instead of an emotional one.

I will take a deeper dive and evaluate all my options.

Most of the people that hire a good PM find they make more money paying their fee than not, tenants know there is no emotion, and tenants are more apt to pay. 

I have been through some bad tenants but nothing so extreme and the experience taught me to keep out my emotions.