There's no rent control and the rental demand is very high. 

Your lender behind your 203k loan is likely going to require a licensed and insured contractor to complete any of the work subject to repair in your appraisal report and any the repairs that you want to finance.Any renovations on top and outside of that will be under your control.

Also I have on the contract pest control as needed which I never did not have one prior to renting only occasional water bugs and a small issue that was corrected immediately.

Bottom line...As an investor you have Zero control when investment goes south!

The reason is you have more control over the sale of your than the purchase of the other property.

Always been skittish about not having control or say... hopefully there will be good news on the return front?  

Or would it be considered part of the expense of setting up the SDIRA with check book control?

If it's a big value add, precision on finishes is not required and you learn and pivot as you go. 

I realize that the Fed doesn't control all of that however.

That said, size rather then specic rooms usually controls the sales price.