Selling a property for 1 mil that you bought for 500K leaves out some huge things like - closing costs, depreciation, capital improvements, tax bracket (yes it matters even for capital gains).  

Recently, I’ve started to view my 15-mile training runs through nearby neighborhoods as a sort of prospecting method —a foot tour of sorts— helping me determine neighborhoods I might be interested in investing in.My goal with Bigger Pockets is simple — I hope to learn from other investors within the community, leverage the tools and resources to improve my ability analyze potential deals (to help my 40-something-year-old-self gain the confidence to do what my 20 something-year-old-self knew was possible long ago) and contribute to the community where I can with the experience I have.  

Money spent on physical infrastructure outside of improvements for educational purposes does not receive any tax advantage.  

The idea in apartment complex or hotel searching is that you need to find something that you can immediately improve (then probably refinance).What should you be looking for exactly that lets you know you can improve this property right away?

As the ARV goes up I find the extent of repairs/improvements does too.

It need's lots of improvement more than I thought when first purchased .

I am working on improving my methods for analyzing prospective rental properties to determine cash flow.  

Thats going to improve your chances.

Sounds like you have added close to $100k of value, added $1,000 a month of tax smart cashflow to your bottom line, improved your personal quality of life, reduced your company's business expenses, and still have more upside.  

In our case improved operations provides the self-funding to make these investments possible, to the detriment of cash flow during the first 4-5 years, but we planned for that going in.