I am pretty sure that whoever wins the auction at say 500k, will have to pay the Property tax liens owed on top of the 500, that it's not already baked into the reserve price. 

When you are going to compare a fair fight between 2 champions you won't put one  that is fresh just eaten 2 hours ago, against the same category fighter that has not slept for 4 days and malnutritioned.

Were the walls freshly painted when the tenant moved in?

Everything is going to start coming at you pretty fast on this first one but a fresh unit to get rented is a big plus because you will be able to find your own residents.

My approach is to sign fresh leases.

Currently I have fresh paint on the house (inside and outside), new doors (Garage and entrance), Solar Panels (10K system w/ LG Battery), and exterior aesthetics upgrades.

Hopefully it's walkable to the Fresh Market, great restaurants, and the Red Line.

If that is doable, I'd just take that number and bake it into the rent to make it easy that way you can be sure to collect.

I think it's a good idea to budget for an additional 10% of expenses on top of your initial budget to account for additional unknowns during a rehab.That way it's baked into your numbers.

In less competitive environments where we don't necessarily have to bake in hard EMD to get awarded a deal, could we perhaps do a clause in the PSA that says something like: return EMD if DD and finance contingencies are not met?