I was able to buy the house with $30k instant equity, 5% down conventional 30 year mortgage and immediately get a $20k HELOC out of the new house, which I still use to this day to fund my investing.  

In other instant, the tenant would just take off breaking the lease.

Ultimately, since my line of thinking is that the $ up front to do this could be worth it for a buy and hold investment as it will a) pay off in the long run as I save a little bit of money each month and, b) instantly add value to the property once completed.

Real Estate agents will always offer more because there commission depends on it but they are shocked when the reduced the price 10 times before sold it at a price a skilled investor could have instantly told you it was the best price to sell it at.

Using hard money allowed us to pick up the property instantly with very little of our own money down and then put in only the money needed for the fixup and the monthly hard money payments - which we could manage more easily. (4) Brick siding is usually very durable and all we did was do 2 rounds of pressure washing to get it to look like that (note that another reason why the photos look good is because they were all taken from my wife's iPhone @Pragya Singh, she's very proud of it :) )Hope these help and I'd be glad to help answering any more questions.

I run a report by class and can instantly see  how each property is doing. 

I miss them terribly, but the internet has made it possible for me to see pictures (instantly, even!)

Once you pay everything off your score will go up but it is not instant.

We aren't in this situation right at this instant, but foresee this coming up.Just wondering if you all have a good framework for prioritizing this stuff and / or do you have intermittent resources that can help?

I am looking at Booking.com and notice that this site does the “instant” booking option, and so does VRBO, where my first listing is posted.