For it to rack up $1000 I would think that it either was happening for a significant amount of time or was a significant leak. 

You might pay a higher interest rate for now, but you can rack up rental history and length of ownership.

On the personal finances, buying my first BRRRR side of things:  My wife and I are within 10 days of closing on a refi of our house in order to wipe out the divorce legal and settlement debt I racked up on second mortgage and credit cards back in 2014 and cut $800-1000 out of our monthly obligations. 

You can buy the paint from them, or see if another supplier can cross-reference the numbers.Or, go to the bookstore, general store, or even the library, and find the magazine rack. 

I would buy a 24" cabinet and install a pull out laundry basket and then you only have a 12" space or so... that can be used for storing the toilet brush and a decent trash can OR a pull out towel rack.

The cost of this can vary quite a bit based on a number of factors, but especially if the property has older wooden windows (it can take a while to test all their components). 

They both have wooden privacy fences.

NEEDS - new paint on wooden siding.

Is that the right metric to use to determine easily if numbers could be out of rack?

The inside of the home is very dated (wooden toilet seats, early 90’s cabinets, etc) and was built is in 93’. 2 beds, 1 bath. 1,194 sqft.