You (or someone who you are miraculously able to wholesale this to) would be responsible for cleaning up the title. 

Advertising, cleaning and maint, insurance, legal, repairs, supplies, etc... 1) Because property #1 wasn't "on market" during the renovation, does everything apply to the basis? 

Hi all, We are currently deep in the process of buying our first home in Louisiana.  

I've been in their apartments and they're clean.  

hi chaim. i have not bought any houses at a tax sale. i have however, bought a few after the tax sale. here in erie county new york, if you buy from a tax sale, it can be a great deal. however, whatever was left on the past due taxes, you now owe. hence, you just bought yourself a liability. i don;t know about anyone else here, but i can manage to create my own bills myself without buying anyone else's tax liability. so, watch out for that issue. it may just be a new york thing, but maybe not. one of our local municipalities here has their own tax sale auctions aside from the county. that one, if you buy from them, you get a clean slate, no past due taxes left. however, they like to start the bidding out at what was owed to them, so, there would be no " leftover" anyway. by the way, they sell very few of them. lol. i usually go back to them after the sale and offer to buy some of the " left over" properties, usually for pennies on the dollar and i get them. you think they would figure out to start the bidding low if they are gonna sell them cheap later on anyway. but, regardless, even after i buy them dirt cheap, i still get them with no left over taxes owed. also, you need to know if your state is a " redemption" state. i. e., can the owner come back later and redeem their house by paying the taxes?

Surely there will be expenses (cleaning the house, making repairs, changing lightbulbs, etc.), but how large exactly are these expenses?

We have many clients with deep pockets and large incomes that prefer to build a large real estate portfolio with our turnkey properties primarily because they don't have any "extra" time to get involved actively in real estate investing.Other factors to consider are your knowledge, contacts, capital, and other resources that may be necessary to do it on your own.

I loathe getting my spring clean up bill from my PM, it's alway a couple hundred bucks and, while necessary, annoying.You'll want to start as close to the 2% rule as possible, so about $85k this place would be a steal.  

Making sure they are really clean is extremely important.

I admit, I have done a few deals without coverage, but I also knew the properties very well, knew the factors associated with the title, knew they were clean without any construction or other matters that could be the basis for any claims, and, I was willing to accept the risk (self insure) my period of ownership.