This can often be cost-prohibitive. 

Even with renovation costs and insurance costs the fix n flips are still making money.  

or, do you cash flow only after you've paid back your closing costs and your rent ready costs? 

Although I know most sec 8 landlords use it because of the perception of guaranteed rents.As a small home builder I really dont know how they are going to lower the cost of new construction housing unless the govmit subsidizes it somehow.. basically the price of home components are very sticky they only go up. with the xception of lumber that will go  up and down through out the year..

You can also assess a dollar amount that you value the cost of these requests to be, and ask for these as a discount from the purchase price or a concession to you for closing costs. 

There were a lot of costs that we didn't expect like the plumbing had to be completely redone.

Sure don't do the renovation, I only do renovations that project a return of 2x the cost of the renovation.

I own a duplex in Clermont, FL just outside of Orlando and initially wanted to split water meters between the two units, but the cost and amount of work were higher than expected.

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It costs roughly $100/mo but is well worth the expense.