That brings my to my conclusion: While it can feel very rewarding to beautify a property, rehabbing residential income properties (duplexes/triplexes) is an evil that should be prevented if at all possible.

From your question and from Iowa I'll jump to the conclusion that you are trying to base buying decision without local deep understanding of the market.  

In conclusion, if you would be living in an area where there are no other options within many miles of you except the one you mentioned, than that would makes sense.

I have pretty much come to the exact same conclusion.

Here was his response:"I gave this some thought over the weekend and came to the conclusion that I would like to accept your offer.But there are some things to consider...

I spent a good amount of time yesterday trying to find an answer to this question and I'm sorta coming to the same conclusion you did - the opportunities nearby are few and far between.  

Anyway, I'm still undecided on that, and therefore plan to stick with LLC's until I vet that opinion more fully and come to a final conclusion (if possible - which when it comes to legal issues, absolute conclusiveness is rarely truly possible).Okay, back to before the tangent: We used to have the philosophy of having 1 LLC per every 5 properties.

A very sensible conclusion.

How do you come to the conclusion that you could sell the property after its renovated?

What was the conclusion?