Plan to start small, buy a condo or townhouse wholesale that only needs cosmetic upgrades i.e paint, carpet etc.

Still a bandaid, meant to get you by for a handfull of years or cosmetic fix only somewhere fairly dry. 

Avoid lipstick on the pig.Renovations like nice kitchens and bathrooms are great for rental properties, but it is not everything.A property that has been cosmetically renovated, but has no capital improvements is worse than one that has been very well-maintained, but might have older cosmetics.If I walk into a property and I see that the kitchens and bathrooms have been redone, but all the walls are plaster there's no grounding in the electrical and the plumbing has never been updated that I consider it a full gut.It's a shame to pay a premium because of a nice kitchen and bathroom only to find out that you have to rip it all apart.It is usually less expensive to do cosmetic rehab for rentals than capital improvements. 

House is in decent condition, some relatively new cosmetic updates, and electrical updates.

Focus on homes that have capital improvements over cosmetic ones. 

Well, it was a small cosmetic flip.

The second property had some light cosmetic work and a new kitchen.

Usually we end up replacing ranges due to cosmetic issues more than mechanical.

It’s just cosmetically ugly.

Cosmetic value adds also significantly boost the rents and equity so you can often put $30-40k in rehab and create $70-80k equity for example which snowballs over time.