As for hard money lenders, they are more expensive than private money for sure but if you get a good enough deal they will happily lend to you.

I believe it is not in good enough shape.

If it lasted 50-60 years and it is still good enough today, you would not be improving things by putting in new stuff with a planned failure/obsolescence built into the manufacture in 5 years.

Or what they think is good enough might not be to you. 

or contracts from places like legal zoom good enough?

Appraisal came in at 135k, which isn't far off but wasn't good enough Hardmoney lenders to approve the deal. 

My logic is that if it was good enough to be in someone’s primary residence until they can't reside there any more, it's good enough for a refinery contractor to sleep on. 

It's true, this is why so many of my friends and clients use Zillow .Sometimes Good enough is all you need.

If you get a good enough deal you can just refi all (or more) your money out and still be within the LTV requirements.

First you schedule a walk thru of apartment so you know if you want to renew them or not,, crappy house keeping,, what ever is almost good enough reason for me not to renew.Download a lease renewal form,, give within proper notice period,Raise rent if it warrants a raise, you need to market check your area..