Basic staging with an agent usually means they give you insight into how you should:Declutter and depersonalize by removing photos and personal itemsArrange your furniture to improve the room’s flow and make it feel biggerAdd plants, move art, or re-arrange other accessoriesFull-service staging is another option if your house needs more hands-on attention.

I would use the income to slowly improve the house and once you get it to a good spot, HELOC out some money for a down payment on another place rinse and repeat. 

The cash flow improves quickly, but the cash flow is so negative on retail purchases that it will take years to reach cash neutral.  

The problem is that it take far more effort to LIVE that dream that it is to wake up from that Dream.I teach Real Estate Investing on the side and I will tell you 95% of the students are sitting in class dreaming or pretending that they are improving their lives just by attending the class.In the end, they don't really study.I give a Spreadsheet exam at the end of a 12 week / 1 class per week session on building a 10 Year Pro-Forma business plan for your Real Estate and I will tell you 95% fail out right.Being in class is more about dreaming than it is about putting in the effort to learn the skills to be an Investor.

The problem is these homes are 60-120 years old and because of the low value neighborhoods, nobody has ever made any capital improvements beyond duct tape.

You could have as well restructured deal and provided deal improvement instead of trying to milk 5-6+% commissions on the new deal from invetors.

Repairing/improving to sell.

The real issue that can and has reoccurred more than anything else IMO is that the original seller cannot just waltz out and get a new loan after their credit has improved.

To this very day we are still taking on new clients and are doing just fine, so it goes to show you can’t please everyone but that doesn't mean you can’t still do good business and improve.

Third, we open ourselves to honest and transparent feedback without judgment to our clients so that we can continually improve.