Buy a house that needs cosmetic work, kitchen, bath, flooring, paint, lights etc and fix it up yourself while living in it for a year.

So its just very physiological warfare against these potential students.. sell them on futures  paint a rosy picture tug at their heartstrings get them all motivated to spend money then let the go at it..

What color are you painting your stock cabinets?

We painted the outside, cleaned up the backyard, changed the fireplace, changed kitchen countertops and backsplash, added accent wallks.

You can use Zillow or rent cast along with others to paint a picture of the area where you want to invest. 

Recommend you Google "Cleveland lead paint instpection" and read what it says on city website.

Literally all they did was paint the exterior brick white with some weird artsy designs and they called that a big value add. 

Quote from @Jim Reynante: After owning properties C/D neighborhoods with high crime statistics, I have experienced all of the things that go along with it: 1) High turnover rate; 2) Tenants that don't care for the property; 3) Little/No appreciation in home value; and 4) High Crime Rate (burglary, vandalism).I am pretty tired of fixing broken windows, fixing broken doors/locks, and painting over graffiti.

Paint is not rocket science, and he asked if I had any work that needed doing, so I let him do the paint job instead of my painter (accepting in my mind that if he didn't do a great job this was going to be charity).

Patch, sand, prime and paint the holes and paint to match the wall.