First we trimmed the shrubs down to about 4 ft provinding a clear line of sight to the garage from every side.

(Loose handrail; chipped linoleum, trim damage, etc) What’s your method for determining fix now or fix later?

This indicates to me that there is a lot of fat that can trim, and while you can invest with no money down (read: other people's money), having a bit of your own makes life immeasurably easier. 

From my experience (limited to about a dozen properties tested) lead paint isn't in the drywall paint, but may be in trim paint (windows and doors) and occasionally in siding paint a few layers down.

She didn’t pay rent, was in the way of the contractors, wouldn’t throw her garbage away and even after we got her out (cash for keys) she kept coming back.The renovation plan: The initial plan that was submitted to the bank was to completely replace all cabinets, open up (knock out walls) the upstairs kitchens, build a dividing wall (unit 2), new flooring, majority of the windows, trim, plumbing, move sink and washer in dryer in the downstairs unit, rewire electric downstairs, sheet rock ceiling downstairs (was push tile ceiling) and replace all bathroom vanities and bath tubs.

@Luke Moore I've been wanting to and hopefully will at some point in the next 2-3 years build ground up - What are you all in construction costs (minus the land)  -- is your GC fee included and all utility connection fees (IE charge to hook into city sewer, water, etc)Also DO NOT put any MDF in this place - we have a part time maintenance guy that also works part time for the "High end" place in town that is relatively new construction - the owner of that place put MDF trim in there  ????

Inside was terrible also all sub floors in most rooms had to be replaced and those not were sealed with kilz. all sheet rock was removed at least 24 inches up from floors in every room and all base trim gone,, we kilz the studs before repairing the wall and putting back that sheet rock and also kilz the floor joists where we removed sub floor.. new insulation and new rock. , We got house for 191K sold for 430K cleared about 70 K and took us much longer than expected..Worst job ever, never thought it would ever smell good enough to put on market but we won.. after a couple of asthma attacks and lots of labor.. the city had lived trapped about 40 cats previous owner was feeding out of her garage along with about a dozen she had inside..

The private loans are the ones we're trimming off but the "Public" loans - held by the Government - are getting the long haul treatement.The deal with forgiveness is 2 fold:If you work in the public or non-profit sectors for 10 years and make 10 years of on-time payments, the rest is forgiven.If you make 20 years of on-time payments, the rest of the debt is forgiven.  

They'll be "investor friendly," but likely nobody I've used in the past.For the most part, this is what we'll be doing to both of them (with estimated budgets):-  Lead inspections/clean-out/permits:  $1000-  New plumbing (and new fixtures):  $6000-  Upgraded electrical (and new fixtures):  $5000-  Install forced air heating/AC (ductwork and units):  $7000-  About 50% new sheetrock and paint:  $5000-  Flooring: $2000-  Cabinets/countertops:  $4000-  Replace doors/trim as needed:  $2000-  Appliances:  $1000-  Exterior repairs as needed (doors/windows/etc): $3000-  Misc:  $1000TOTAL:  $37,000 +/-I've done literally a 50-100 rehabs of this exact scope, though I've never done one for a rental unit. 

Wood trim is fairly cheap and can go up real fast if you know what you're doing!