Ultimately, I am looking for a deal that is cash flow neutral in case the navy moves me elsewhere.

I would also paint the kitchen walls in a neutral color and paint the wood paneling white. 

I have never purchased a cash neutral property that did not have an obvious value add. 

My thought was to have one splash of color in the kitchen (the counters), and do neutral colors (white, gray, ivory, cream) in the rest of the kitchen.

I'm told by a couple of electricians that the "neutral wire" is missing.

If I may, since you are all about apparently accepting when someone has a point, let me ask you, out of all the people who wrote in this thread, I had unpleasant interactions with 3, and wrote the others in a neutral way or with thanks to them for their help, and the 3 I had issues with were objectively not being helpful, and as far as I am concerned were actually going out of their way to create controversy, something commonly seen on message boards.

It should be tax neutral.

It would be pretty much cash flow neutral if I were to leave (and I did a VA loan with 10% down). 

There is a budget amount that may be a little tricky to determine but in the long run a house that has reasonable and somewhat "neutral" updates for the area is going to sell for more.

I will also admit I have purchased a cash neutral RE but it had a $50k to $60K value add that worked out very close to plan.