I own a relatively new fourplex that hasn't needed really any maintenance work but I'm hopefully closing on 2 single family houses on March 8 that will need some work before renting them out (structural assessment/reinforcement from beneath the house, kitchen remodels, painting, decks, Windows, fencing, landscaping).

And I definitely understand that there is a different reality beneath what everyone advertises. 

Yeah, its just an 11x18 inch car door magnet with a faint graphic of a house in the background with "WE BUY HOUSES" in big red lettering, any condition-any area right underneath in black and my phone number right beneath that.

So I have something solid to screw to, I will fill in the places void of plaster with drywall shims on the joists.

Atlanta home sales: Trouble beneath the surface?

I beg you.All new plumbing risers and lateralsAll new windows, doorsAll new furnaces, ductwork, everything related to heatingAll new electricalNew RoofI would strip everything to the studs, keep existing sub flooring if you can (you can lay 3/4" plywood and shim to level if they're off), and rebuild from there.

@Dustin Dudinski,Deals fall through all the time because the property isn't remotely close to what the listing agent wrote on the MLS.Recent example being that we discovered, about a week in, that the seller (and/or their agent) was intentionally not granting access to the crawlspace beneath the house.

I'm merely speculating about what dangers may lurk beneath the surface of this seemingly-benign and abstract article from CNN Money.

Once long ago when I was removing wallpaper in an old house, the original paperhangers "tagged" the plaster wall beneath the lowest layer of paper with name and year.

I leave for work and get a call from my wife, upon removing the gutter water damage beneath was exposed.