Other than that it is laminate counter tops, golden oak cabinets, brass fixtures, 4 inch white tile baths, you get the idea... 2001.Based on my research of comps on rentals.com it is very obvious that there is a line somewhere of diminishing returns when updating a rental, but I haven't been able to exactly pinpoint it yet.

@Barshay Graves if you take the golden nugget from all of the previous replies to your post, your takeaway should be, NEVER TAKE A NO FROM ONE BANK/LENDER AS WHAT BANKS WON'T DO.You have to do some shopping around and networking with others in your market to find the lenders who will want your business and be happy to lend to you.

It takes a while to find the right property, but when  you do it is golden.

It gives some general terms but if you have a coverage ratio or 1.3+ you are golden.

Golden rule of hard money: only a smoking hot, steal of deal truly works with hard money.All the best!

That would be a golden tenant and even if they are way below market rent, do the numbers - you'll see that evicting them just to get the rent to market rates immediately could result in a long enough vacancy while you clean up the units, with the resultant lack of cash flow, that you were better off raising the rent a hundred or so a year (example) for 3 years (example) on the existing tenant, and then who knows what kind of tenant their replacement will be.

However, there are many moving parts to these transactions and I see two or three posts per day where newly minted (wannabe) investors are asking for a "sub-to" contract and the steps to get a sub-to deal done because they found their golden deal and need to get it inked up ASAP. 

The information and expertise on them is Golden.

I say that because rich people do not count on retirement accounts to fund there golden years, they have other streams of passive income.I have been wanting to get out of the stock market and start lending money.... so last month I transferred my American Funds IRA into a PENSCO self directed IRA.  

As long as your numbers are thorough and you're making a return you're satisfied with, you're golden.  2% rule is just that, a general rule.