It is my understanding that the new owner will have the house at the cost basis of my purchase price, for calculating capital gains taxes or depreciation.For gift tax purposes for you - FMV.For capital gain tax purposes for the recipient - your original basis/purchase price 

A good baseline is to calculate material costs (e.g., $300 for paint and supplies) and add a fair hourly rate for labor.

Does Hard Money typically cost 30-40% of the purchase price?? 

It would/could be only 15% capital gains tax and yes you could/would deduct all selling costs including commissions and transfer taxes.

That cost me about $1,000 each time. 

Contrary to most business lending, the REI industry has a lot of "non-bank" lenders that provide attractive loans that can lower your cost of capital and improve your profit/cash flow. 

It's growing rapidly and price of labor/ housing is dirt cheap.

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And the hardest part of all this is finding sufficient labor to rehab/manage the property.

We pay payroll taxes and workers comp, we comply with state and federal laws regarding work place safety, PTO, vacation, labor laws et al.