I maybe would've shaved off $5-10K extra in reno is all that I could've done.

One of the terrible pieces of advice I received was from 2 people who suggested that I sell my California SFH rental (with lots of equity) to "cash flow" more and "acquire more doors" by doing a 1031 exchange into an apartment complex OOS or buy multiple SFHs/duplexes OOS.

Send up to six different pieces.  

When I see a property starting to underperform, as the manager I have to run the data to figure out why and then make adjustments whether is lack of amenities, need updated photos, replace a couple pieces of dated furniture or increase my focus on advertising that property specifically.

You will need to do that anyway to get them to plug in the equity piece.

One is a house, the other is a piece of land that has a condemned trailer on it.

Paid $800 for a structural engineer to write up a 10 page piece of fluff telling us all the ways we could spend money to fix the sinking but settled foundation.

I'm getting decision making info in only small pieces over time, via phone calls only.

YES, that was the whole thing, shovels and wheel barrows, literally, not 1 piece of machinery was used. 

Most people outside the profession don’t understand the time and capital it takes to make a project come to fruition.Before a single piece of equipment touches the ground, there are years of government meetings, environmental and site assessments, engineering studies, etc.Each step requires significant time, effort, and capital investment.But when done right, it creates a ton of value and transforms communities, which is why I love it.