I read in the papers during the current health care debate many believed that people on medicaid are drug addicts, have mental problems.

Make sure you get esstopal letters from every tenant, copies of leases, security deposits, past payment records etc.It can be a problem mixing section 8 with non section 8....different mentalities that often do not get along.If the money works you can go ahead and in the future evict if necessary.

So I suppose welfare & some mental disability stuff going on here.

For any work requiring a permit I think you'd want the permit because it will likely boost the value of the house which means higher taxes of course but also higher resale value.

Finally I've been sort of mentally ball-parking IRR but I suppose I should just calculate it.

I don't think he is a bad person, but I do think that his mentality was different than mine.  

Older agents love young newbies who have the hustle and go mentality.

However, if the military receive another boost like 5-10% in housing allowance it could reinvigorate the market for sales and rentals. 

Doing all the work ourselves to boost returns and cut down on expenses.

I can use a little bit of money to secure a large asset, do some improvements, boost the rents, and then I have a cash-flowing property that the tenants pay for.