Just ignore the $90K you invested to pay off the HELOC because, I guess, well, you didn't have it, you just spent it on loan payments rather than something else.  

I haven't spent a ton of money overall on improvements.

Also, I really wanted the units to be up to my standard, but I think I spent more on them making them look better with upgrades, etc, than I needed to.

If you purchase the property, unless there is property depreciation, $1 spent equates to a $1 of value.  

Most spend too much of their time and resources on the set up and completely ignore the day to day responsibilities and/or cut corners and costs where greater attention and resources should be spent.  

If you paid $500k and houses are appreciating $50k per year, and you think there's little to no ceiling, then maybe it makes sense to spent $15k out of pocket to keep it.

This habit is critical for real estate investors because it forces the maximum ROI out of every dollar spent.

Spent all of the "Dry" season clearing land, bulldozing, burning, discing, then plowing rows.

I went to a learn-on-the-site program that our local REIA had recently.  3BR/3BA house, owner is probably in 145K after fix up (I know the purchase price, don't know what was spent to get it ready after purchase) and a handful of years later it's now worth 190K. 

They were but the headaches were not worth it, I sold almost all my properties there and wish I would have spent that money in Chicago.