While living in the house we put in central heat/AC, new siding, new roofs, new asphalt driveway, remodeled the bathroom, and refinished one of the bedroom's hardwood floors.In February, 2014 we moved out of this house into our new home and started doing some minor updates. 

The work I will need to contract out include re-finishing the hardwood floors and I would like to level the (already semi-flat) back yard and pave it with asphalt as there is currently no off-street parking but this will yield 3-4 spots. 

This may make no sense but I will try my bestmy father is in the process of taking over a home of a friend who has missed a ton of payments and let the house go to ****. the reason my father is taking over the home is because he owes him a ton of money and gave him the equity to attempt to pay off the debt. we want to see if the house is worth fixing at all for my dad to try to take some equity out of it or if the headache is even worth it.The guy owes me father > 80K HOUSE. due to bank 130k he is allowing him to take over payments. current owner hasn't made payments in over 8 months its in pre foreclosure but bank is willing to do a short sale to my father. we will have to pay 12k in cash for the missed payments and would end up owing 120. house is in providence ri near broad st. the house needs almost anything you can think of. we have been in contact with all the tenants we have sent an exterminator to begin the process of dealing with cockroaches, bed bugs, ants, and terminates. we have electrical issues a lot of the plugs in the house and light sockets do not work. upon having an electrician visit the house he stated that somebody had the electrical updated in the basement but it was not connected to the knob and tube in the house. they began the process of updating the electrical but for an easy way out t hey only did it so it would pass inspection. he said he would have to get into the wall to see exactly the extent of the electrical repair needed. plumbing is also an issue and within the next year will need all 3 new boilers. the yard has a small parking lot next door but no fence or boundary showing where the property ends. the roof has a couple of years left in it. yard has to be fixed cleaned and asphalt or cement. all basement windows need to be changed and fixed. the interiers are all very dated and would need to be updated as tenants move.

Also Leander and Georgetown don't seem so bad.I am curious if anyone has any pointers as to which cities have the least to deal with as far as general red tape/taxes/permits/eetc.

It makes no sense that I can have unlimited RTO/LTO deals, but have to go through red tape to offer clients seller financing. 

It’s not just outdated, it is in a very bad shape where cabinet doors are kept in place by scotch tape.

When the tenants fall behind and do not pay and you go thru the eviction process they will take many parting gifts with them, if they dont then the neighbors come by for a quick shopping spree.Section 8 has become so tough with all their inspections and red tape it can take months just to get it to pass inspection and who knows how many other people you turned away because of this "Sure-thing", even though they need to government to run their lives and pay their bills.

I do have time and am not averse to slow but steady growth, so it's not the end of the world, although I find seasoning periods to be frustrating and red tape-like.

Use a tape measure and do the math yourself on wood, paint and flooring.

Last week I taped a 5 Day Notice to Vacate on his door, which will also end on the last day of the month.