A big trick is to do cosmetic updates to max out the rents, for example most deals I sell we raise rents a good 30-100% after paint, new counters, new flooring, paint/replace cabinets.

I was looking at pipe farms  IE completed subdivisions in Henry county for 1k per lot.. thats 1k per lot  100 lot project for 100k heck it cost 30k a lot just to do the improvements..

Moving the lockbox to a less visible place like gas pipes, garage door, etc. 

If you’re chasing ski resorts for some kind of cashflow pipe dream you’re in the wrong state.

To repair the pipe it is pretty easy - dig, cut out the pipe, and replace it.

There are options to line the pipe.

Same for a collapsed sewer pipe - they won't pay for the repair to the pipe, but they do need to pay for the damages caused to access that pipe like removing flooring, drywall, concrete, etc.

Kitchen appliances and counters are fine in my opinion, I am not looking to make an amazing house.

If you had a good "investor friendly" CPA he/she would write off enough to give you the deductions you need to help counter your W2 or 1099 income.Reason I say sell the first home is even with $40K in equity its not worth it to do a cash out refinance.

Furthermore, these start ups are usually VC funded, and the demands of their investors is that they scale up quickly, which runs counter to the ability to master even one local market well, as I detailed above.