Add thoughtful touches like a Keurig or French press, USB chargers, and local travel guides.

Frame out the wall and use plywood for the siding. 

At yet another sale there was a brick row house/town house for sale that looked good from the street, but since it was in the middle of the row, to see the back of the house, you had to walk around the block and see the house from the alley, where the entire 3 story brick back wall of the house was laying in the back yard, and there was no back wall standing. 

Hey @Chi Lo - I actually have a video on my YouTube page about this (lookup ClosedByMo on YouTube).Regarding walls being damp and waterproofed, it means there needs to be waterproofing on the basement retainer walls (this is something you can do post-construction and the contractors would need to dig around the house exposing the basement/foundation to apply the waterproofing). 

It all depends on the walls you are hitting.

Looks like a rubble type foundation wall.

Purchase price: $260,000 Cash invested: $120,000 Sale price: $535,000 Complete gut, new front and rear walls, all new electric, HVAC, plumbing, roof, deck, windows, interior What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

The best defense against rats entering your property is to seal off all entry points (holes, cracks in walls), remove food sources (dirty dishes, food left in trash cans), and water sources (like leaks). 

But if you do have a house that sits in expansive soils and are susceptible to shrinking and expanding they can put pressure on the basement walls (exacerbated by frost/thaw cycles) and cause them to crack horizontally.

It's not fully closed as in drywall, it's sort of a faux wall on our side, but the tenant could open the door on his side and come through if he wanted.