Alterations to the original building plans, however small, can create risks.In a nearby county, they have inspectors going around town to check for any unauthorized alterations, A co-worker had an old window AC, his wife was tired of not able to open and use that window, opted to buy a through the wall AC.

Do you have to bust a hole in the wall or dig holes everywhere - how much does that cost?  

That company supports foreclose bidders they produce a document daily on all the sales with same info I mentioned above and color coded certain props with extra caution Red or Green for ready to go bid with confidence. although this created uber competition. 

Typically I have my painter come in a "touch up walls" like 300 bucks max.

Replaced carpet, textured walls and painted.

Spackle and paint numerous times, fill holes in the wall, have had to wake up early to move my car due to the parking situation, etc. - Have had to sit down all five tenants and reset expectations in terms of cleaning (including the 68 year old co-worker).3.

People come for fall break and fall colors.  

Last comment I will add is when a deal goes bad, how it is handled by the sponsor will show their true colors. 

I can't do central AC with no furnace, and wall mounted mini splits will look terrible.

If you build (via managing a general contractor), you should (ideally) know more about how the property was built than if you bought an existing home--you know what's behind the walls, and ideally you might avoid anything wrong with buying an existing home with issues you and your inspector didn't catch.I understand there's risk to building--it just seems right now that the risk is lower than buying an existing house--a house where you simply cannot know every detail without tearing it down to the studs and doing a complete remodel.