If not  I would agree with Miriam about looking at open houses to get ideas   One question on your re-hab. my 70s era house has a very closed floor plan, so if I do re-hab  it would probably mean opening up some walls to open up the space.  

Making tenants pay for repairs is a great way for problems to go unreported or to create tenant DIY fixes that cause more harm than good and cost more in the long run than fixing it property the first time.  

I understand the basic principles of subject-to, lease options and seller financing and I was curious if there's harm in asking the owner (based on their selling situation) if they'll consider a subject-to, lease option etc.?

Then you can take this filtered list of properties and run a more in depth calculation and figure out if anything is good.Finally, I don't think there is any harm in letting other agents in the area know that you are a buyer and that if they send you something good, you will move on it - if that is in fact true.

Inflicting harm on others is unnecessary, especially in such a simple situation as this.

What I do with my LO's is insert a clause where I'll accept responsibility for the first $250 in repairs, but according to North Carolina law the owner is still responsible for maintaining a habitable residence. 

Although I consider this reaction partially influenced by astrology (I am a very practical type of person-no imagination, no fairy tale fantasies), I dropped reading that book like a bad habit.

The homes already have a tenant and the properties are rehabbed and habitable.  

We've gotten in the habit of going to a showing for every other apartment on the street that comes up for rent or sale, just to try and keep our property in perspective. 

With greed comes the greater likelihood that we'll harm others and even ourselves in pursuit of whatever the objective is.