One house is a 3br/2,5ba, with full kitchen, and the second house has a 2br/2ba with full kitchen on the top floor and on the bottom floor is a Studio/Ba with Kitchen. 

I updated the kitchen slightly with a backsplash and painted the entire house.

Hey Randee, totally can relate with you being from an expensive real estate market - I moved to Columbus a few years ago (from Portland, Oregon which was super expensive) to become a full time real estate investor, and ever since, I've completed quite a lot of BRRRRs, flips, and own a successful rental portfolio here in Columbus Ohio.

I'm in contract on a $400K house upstate NY - was prepared to spend $50K on cosmetic changes (painting,  new floors, new kitchen, new bathrooms etc) but after getting the inspection report today here's all the issues I'm dealing with and it's not pretty (see below) How should I move forward?

Its global, the big dogs overseas are going to cook you in your own kitchen.

.- CPA are SUPER valuable, especially with someone becoming a full time real estate professional and managing multiple properties.

My contractor was supposed to do a full gut renovation (bathroom, kitchen, floors, everything!).

First, I find that, usually, profits on a property increase with time.  Rents

If you were to renovate one side for one year while living there, then move into the other side and fix that one up over a year, after 2 years you'd have a fully renovated duplex at a very reasonable pace with a place to live the entire time. Real

And be sure to smell behind cabinets-especially kitchen cabinets that don't go all the way to the ceiling (cats sit on cabinets and pee right there), bottom of doors (urine drips down door and runs across the unpainted bottom, it gets absorbed and still smells), any heat/ac vents on the floor or low on the walls (looks like a litter box to cats), thresholds (pee at the door and the pee runs between all the cracks) behind toe strips, baseboards, etc.)