The two houses you picked as comparatives were fixed up to look like new and they had much more visual appeal on the South side of the lake.

I haven't sent that to her, I can just visualize her head exploding when she sees it. 

This is in the town of Paradise CA and all properties are on septic which the seller must get inspected and clearance received- if no clearance, they must install a new one.The kitchens were all in good condition as well as the bathrooms, again that is my visual and some of the tenants input.Not sure on the loan, it is a bank loan and while not finalized, I have been questimating 4.5%Two of the units have small yards and in my opinion after having been watching rentals, are underpriced for rentals right now.

I prefer those documents to be sight-translated... that means the document is read from the source language (in our case, English) and interpreted verbally (for spoken languages) or visually (for signed languages) into the target language (the language of the tenant).

Sometimes you need to "zoom" in rather than trying to process the whole picture and trying to visualize all the steps at once.

I check for signs of plumbing leakage in the kitchen and baths and do a visual inspection for any noticeable damage.  

The refrigerant leak can be the biggest challenge - they must examine the tubing visually for signs of damage, leak-check the joints, coils and tubing using an electronic leak detector, and once they find the leak, the system must be depressurized (pumped into a refrigerant container), the leak repaired, then the system must be evacuated to make sure it holds a vacuum (verify no more leaks), then dessicated and recharged.

This is when a nice spreadsheet will help you visualize your cost/benefit analysis.

Is there a test to see if I'm better off replacing boards or is a visual inspection enough? 

For example my spreadsheet list on a home that rents for $1,000 the rent from the 1st - 5th is $1,000, from the 6th - 15th its $1,100, from the 16th - court date is $1,325 ($1,000 rent + $100 late fee +$125 court cost+ $100 reinstatement/admin fee).This gives them a visual picture of what they are going to owe.