However, that ONLY applies if you are building or renovating today!

Further, I figure that with a larger building I can afford to have property management and would not have to worry about being physical present at the building very often.

You'd likely be able to increase rents for that property with renovations, but the higher quality tenants would be hard to come by.

If you have expertise in construction, you might want to analyze your CapEx more carefully with one of the worksheets I've seen posted on BP, over a timeframe of say, 20 years, after your initial renovation.

I am trying to do more additions or total gut jobs than minor renovations.

It's actually a disservice to the seller and poor negotiating skills of the listing company.These larger companies often have very large overhead costs and must keep transacting to survive.I run a different model at my firm.

In this case, there were over a dozen down units that had been that way for over 10 years, rents were much lower than surrounding properties that did not have units as nice as what ours would be when renovated, and it had absolutely terrible management.  

The goal is to buy a multi-family and make any necessary renovations to one side (the side I won't be living in) in order to rent out.

It is possibly a different situation for the larger investor.

He has a very demanding career and i know hasn't put much of any time or energy into renovations/general land lording.