Buy-and-hold you'd likely need to move East to the outskirts of town to find cash flow ... note that these neighborhoods get hit hard in a downturn, so I'd want to find something I could do a significant forced appreciation on to insulate myself and make sure I planned to hold for a long time.

Bringing heat and insulation in shouldn't be too difficult.Of course, it all depends on the $/ sq ft value of the property.

Market is decent: military gives so economic insulation, there is no appreciation though because incomes stay so low and there is little to no industry.

Depends completely on the structure and how it was maintained.Items I had to address (planned for most):Plumbing, Electric, Roof, tuck pointing, boiler.Ran into asbestos which I did not address or disturb, can be fairly expensive to remediate.Windows had already been completed but insulation in the house was not great.

Anyways I can however give you exact numbers for the contracted items. keep in mind this was only a 750 sq ft house too.Contracted Items:Roof: $4,100Steel high quality Siding from ABC seamless (3 sides only): $6000New paved driveway with retaining wall: $4,400New furnace and some duct work: $4300New gypcrete poured on entire Slab to level floor: $2,300Gutters were included in the siding jobTape, Putty and Patch work on the entire interior: $2000New blown-in insulation and baffles: $1,100My work (materials Only (give or take)):Windows $2500Laminate flooring from Costco: $1200floor Tiles on sale at Lowes: only $50!

Another market with a lot of growth to help insulate in case rents take a bit to catch up with appreciation. 

Electric heat would be crazy expensive I think due to it being brick and not insulated.  

That *may* have an insulating effect on prices based on them appearing relatively cheap.

I've seen the spray-in foam insulation for walls, but I am not sure if it would work in a ceiling or if that's advisable.

One thing I noticed is that I can turn the heaters on for an hour, and the relative temperature would increase so a comfortable setting, but the unit would stay on because we don't have great insulation.