Property was sitting on market and needed light updates (roof, flooring, paint) but was in a great area that allows STRs giving me multiple options when deciding on rental strategy How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

I've already renovated one of the bathrooms, and I’m planning to paint the interior, update the kitchen cabinets, possibly sand the wood floors, build a fence is a corner lot and increase the rent for the room since my tenant is currently renting the entire 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom house for $800 a month.

Little paint and the contractor I found let me buy the material and only charged me labor.

There were some things that some of his crew had done wrong—the kind of things that you list in walk-throughs, like paint spatter.

Paint & finished basement What was the outcome?

I installed cabinets, painted it, and made it back into a residential rental unit.

I never paint, swap rugs (except flooding), or do other improvements on rent controlled units This can lead to blight.Who benefits from rent control?

It's people like you who cause folks who would actually benefit from an ESA to be painted with the same broad scammer brush. 

New roof, exterior painting, new flooring, bathroom updates, finished new living space What was the outcome?

With a dozen properties over 25 years I have yet to spend a dollar on a roof or painting a house exterior.