So give yourself some padding for all of your projects and when everything does go as planned...hey, look at you, you are 3 days ahead of schedule ;). 2) Especially for your first live in flip or 2 or 3 or all of them for that matter, I would advise on sticking to mostly cosmetic updates to the house.  

After running numbers on it and padding them to what I feel would be a real world number I'm coming to a value of 1.8M.

Go with cheap carpet and a good pad and it will feel very nice.  

Adjusters, investigators, and fire marshals are scheduled to come visit asap.Soon comes the fun game of cat and mouse, where the insurance company tries to low ball me, and I get the oh-so-enviable task of arguing my case for more money.

Let the tenant/mouse have a cookie and they'll demand a glass of milk.I agree with what others have said about the repair issue.

we know there are other similar airline pads in EP that seem to be working ok, but the boarded up house is definitely a big concern.  

I have marketed on Trulia, Zillow, Hot Pads, Craigslist, Cozy, and signs around the neighborhood.  

Then you have everything that goes with acquiring accounts and standing up a professional business and appearance - because, lets face it... no one trusts a guy with a spread sheet and a note pad. 

Run it through the Rental Analysis here on BP...https://www.biggerpockets.com/buy-and-hold-calculatorI come up with $165/mo, using the 50% rule.

At 93 years of age he excused himself to go get a pad of paper so he could take notes of our conversation.