The house is completely stripped of all appliances and lighting fixtures but has some nice detail work like flooring and stone fireplaces etc.

It's a small room (9x 12) I believe and it shares the fireplace with the living room.

Has Fireplace in each living room, formal dining room w/ built-ins, hardwoods under carpet in living/dining rooms, and hardwoods in bedroomsHere's what I see as the big kicker: There are $62,000 in back taxes from the last 3 years unpaid, which includes a host of assessments and vacant building fees. the owner is elderly and has early Alzheimer's, so I believe he has neglected these partially due to this and partially due to his being angry at the situation (lawsuit + city issues).ARV on the house is around $425,000 and I think I could buy it for around 35% of value and would have to pay the taxes and do all repairs/updates which I estimate would be around $60,000 total.  

Another concern is if you have a fireplace in there that hasn't been cleaned or is not operational they will use that to burn stuff in.

Hello,I recently purchased a single family home with a separate stand alone building, complete with chimney and fireplace, that will make a great studio rental (appx. 400 SF).

What would you do to this fireplace?

Really neat fireplace ... undermount and quartz in bathrooms... big accent wall in master bath and high end nickel fixtures... this in our market for under 750kIn our mid range homes 300 to 400k we still do granite undermount oil rub bronze stainless etc that's still popular with that price range

Not expensive touches but unique, such as an embossed crest in a fireplace mantel or in trim moldings, a brass mail drop in the front door, brick or stone mail boxes, embossed concrete as stone work, house number counter sunk in an exterior beam, these can identify your work and with a good reputation will add value as a more sought after home than the run of the mill comps.

The fire place, as you know, is a pretty useless way to heat the home and the current tennant don't build fires.

I'm thinking it's a hearth room, put a fireplace in, open the wall over the sink if it faces that exterior wall, you don't have to take the wall out, just an opening, that together with the wide traffic area to that room from the kitchen will tie the two together, carry the same flooring throughout as Heather suggested.