We did a 100% gut/rehab on a 1950's house in 2018 and converted it to a duplex, turned out beautiful, salvaged the original wood floors in parts of the house, put good LVP in the rest, simple plastic mini blinds on every window.

Out of sight out of mind.If these were items you wanted to pass the cost down to the tenants--light bulbs, air filters, water filters, batteries etc. those should be defined in the lease agreement.

This condo was purchased both sight unseen and occupied.

Granite or Quartz on all counter tops including bathrooms.. our up stairs is 9 foot.. and our single levels are 10 foot to 14 foot which NO other builder does in a subdivision type build only custom homes over 1 mil would have that.. flooring is engineered hard wood.. custom cabinets with soft close on all doors in the house..

Therefore, I'll comment on the two other points you mentioned.There's nothing inherently wrong in buying sight unseen if the people are trustworthy.

He knows how to do almost everything, but due to his pace I use him for mainly handyman work(toilets, fixtures, tuckpoint, wood work, switches/covers, etc) He has done minor HVAC and electrical for me as well, but..

They've been at this Fund for a couple of years now with no turnaround in sight (despite glowing monthly reports of an imminent turnaround that never materializes).   

I did a live in flip but hind sight I would have done better with a MF3) Use the excess money to snag a couple dealsCan't change the past, if we all had a crystal ball it would make life amazing.

They are pretty much wholesalers, cash or hard money almost exclusively, and a lot of buyers have an. offer accepted sight unseen.

The smart play would be to build a two story wood frame structure on top of piers or concrete block in most cases. 35 feet is a pretty typical height limit in most neighborhoods, so depending on elevation you SHOULD be able to build two stories on top of the elevated foundation.