If you are a chef your job is to cook dinner.

Do I take the appreciation and value-add capture or do I hold onto the property and soak up the cash flow and debt pay down for years to come?

And for class C properties, you will want to consider the path of progress for that city and hopefully capture economic growth by buying ahead of the progress. 

What’s the best approach ... cold calling or direct mail?

A common result with property in San Diego is a low ROE which points towards selling the property to capture the profit. 

We now have a number of units purchasing cameras to capture the drug sales - literally people walk up to the bedroom window to buy. 

I figure I can capture the next rise by being in the market.

@Patrick Blankenship there’s an awesome analysis out there somewhere on capex, the results of which are captured in one of the BP books.

I’m not so sure that the supply/demand dynamics locally are accurately captured in their analysis but only time will tell.

Also, capturing all water damaged areas, (subfloor, joists, studs, etc) related to the incident(s) will also factor in your costs.Once you get all of that, then you can see if the proposed work  will meet expectations and is within your financial comfort zone.