@Alvin PriceCongrats to you for being proactive, and wanting to have your stuff inline before your purchase..

Something you and your brother have going for you is that whichever place you buy, you've got Prop 13 rewarding long term ownership on top of all the other stuff going on.

If curious for some behind the scenes stuff, we talk about it as if it's "Fannie Mae's money," but typically there are other secondary market investors that'll pay a little more than Fannie for loans that happen to be above her minimum standards.

Hoping new landscape, paint and other misc stuff is all I need.

If he pulls the old unit out a day ahead we provide window units in the interim (usually in the bedroom) until the job is done.I've never had a tenant complain about this but if they did I'd probably tell them stuff happens and that's life.

Hey @Brandon Blase Look into Low down payment stuff (203k loans - for rehabs, and FHA loans for normal purchases).

Great stuff on here.

I would leave structure, personally, and let it wear out until its time to replace.In practice, though, I tend to leave most stuff intact and just take the call when it breaks.  

I did the crappy stuff at night after work.

Keep in mind that no one has x-ray vision and stuff will always be revealed once walls/cabinets/tile starts coming down.