Their appreciation is basically a function of how fast you can raise rents. 

There is a meeting or function almost every day.  

We are losing about 20% of its functional life due to what the tenant did to it, so that is what we are charging.  

And I too am in the process of finding an experienced investor that is willing to work with me, show me the ropes, etc and in return, gets the value of my time/resources for their own business.My plan for finding this person is simply to attend local REIA meetings, networking events, social functions, etc and just get to know people. 

I think the move here is to buy an extremely ugly, but functioning house like Elizabeth Colegrove mentioned she did.  

The purpose for my real estate investments is to augment a pension and retirement plan/portfolio, which is robust, but how much is too much, right?

I had Little to No Money & No Experience but a few REI Boot Camps- basically No Experience...To say I've had a lot of Failures during my 14 years of being involved in studying REI is an Understatement...If I was starting all over again, and my objective is to be able to build a robust REI Biz that can allow me to rehab 6-12 homes a year, wholesale 2-3 properties per month, and build a rental portfolio...I would first focus on getting good at one objective first...Generally most people start out wholesaling because it doesn't require the money or experience rehabbing or landlording requires...I would start with Wholesaling...go find 5-10 very good rehabbers and find out their Criteria for a Great Deal...Commit to building Value for them and ultimately a great relationship.With this you will already have buyers lined up, you know what areas to look for properties in, and you can research public record and see what they are paying for properties on the acquisition(and also ask them, but keep them honest by researching public record)...At this point become the best wholesaler to these rehabbers...you will learn a lot just in this process alone...How to evaluate Comps, Repair Values, Neighborhoods, etc...Which a great wholesaler will know how to do...It will make your deals easier to sell...Ultimately I would see which one of these Rehabber will be open to the idea of partnering/mentoring me on how to get into that arena...They may even allow you to follow the progress of their deals...Every deal has its surprises and over the course of 10-20 deals you will get a real life idea of what those surprises are, and even understand the "reason why" you calculate certain contingencies into deals and also what are the most costly mistakes or repairs to look for and avoid on deals...The value of this Experience will accelerate your learning curve...In my experience one mistake for a beginner can cost you a ton of money and even put you out of the rehab business.There is no way you can learn all the mistakes you must avoid by reading a book or taking a 3-day training program.

(For example, on this one I get "Thoughts on moderation functionality," "Automating my processes to streamline management," and "Commercial blanket loans for SFHs")Because of the poor search functionality, we get dozens, if not hundreds of redundant posts, making BP less, not more, effective as a tool.Is there anything in the works to improve this?

The realtor.com iPhone app does let you search for exact number of bedrooms; I think the app on my iPad functions this way too. 

I'm certainly not a QB power user so the reduced functionality of QB online may not bother me much.