Pay down debt, save money, and watch for a dip or correction. 

On the other hand, it will be in your best bet to find establish couple local construction companies and have them bid on the project.

If I am to understand your recommendations correctly, are you saying that making 10% improvements only matters if I intend to flip the property?

This afternoon our bid on the property got accepted.The house is not move in ready by any means.

So if I understand this correctly, it’s possible a lender may not give a loan if the property is a “fixer upper”, but a way around this is to use a 203k streamline and make improvements to the property?

I do deal with owners off market but I do not want to officially list their property, market it, take tons of offers from buyers, call to market,rounds of bidding and all that crap.

I want to rent it out to gain experience as a landlord but I don’t want to rent it for too long in fear of a market corrections/downfall.

Would I be correct in assuming I could knock the 50% down to say, 20%, to net a positive cash flow of $600/month?

I guess the correct question would be at what age of the house you sell it so it does not become a liabilty? 

But if you have a reasonably friendly, helpful clerk, that person can point out the correct forms you should fill out and make sure you've calculated the correct fees for filing, service of process, etc...