@Tove Fox hope you find this copy & paste useful:)-------------------------------------------------------------------------------Recommend you first figure out the property Class you want to invest in, THEN figure out the corresponding location to invest in.Property Class will typically dictate the Class of tenant you get, which greatly IMPACTS rental income stability and property maintenance/damage by tenants.If you apply Class A assumptions to a Class B or C purchase, your expectations won’t be met and it may be a financial disaster.If you buy/renovate a property in Class D area to Class A standards, what quality of tenant will you get?

Overwhelmingly though, the weather and weather related things were enough to offset the negatives.So, I figure a much more interesting question would be Why do people live in New York City?

I’d start by figuring out the cost of the cosmetic updates and seeing how much you could rent it out for.

Don't attempt to figure things out on your own or act as a GC or PM when you are using other people's money. 

I don’t have a problem paying a couple grand to remove some of the just figure it out stage of learning and utilizing expertise of people that already do it. 

I’ll be keeping this in mind as I move forward with my own investments.Wishing you the best as you figure out a solution, which, from the responses that I'm seeing, are good solutions, but still tedious tasks to undertake.

There are certainly some things to learn along the way, but you'll figure it out as you go just like we all do.There are plenty of folks here that would be happy to help for free - including me.

Contractors are not able to figure this out, what kind of engineer should I look for?

You need to get in touch with a lawyer as soon as you can and figure out how to cut off the tenant/landlord relationship.

I felt I had a good head start since I was already a real estate agent and was very comfortable with finding comps and figuring out the ARV.