Our winters have gotten much milder, plenty of fresh water and the great lakes region generally is considered climate stable and lacks natural disasters like tornados, hurricanes, fires etc. 

I am a fresh new member of this community, although i have been interested in real estate for a while now. 

I'm freshly in escrow for a 2-unit property and plan to live in one.

For example, if a house is Not Bad (e.g. just needs fresh paint, carpet, fixtures) and was 1000 SQFT I would generally just estimate repairs at around $10,000 or $10 multiplier x 1000 SQFT. 

The water I just bake it into their rent.

Hey Jonathan McPhail I just typed up an article on real estate developments doing innovative work (fresh off the presses).

Now picture this, the tenants space is heating the cold air, as the air heats it wants to move up, and can easily do so, and as it does this it has a fresh air supply to draw upon from below, which is drawing in as very cold.

What we found was is if you find the right area within the zip and remodel to a little higher standard you'll get the fresh out college, with good jobs and 700+ credit scores that want to live near Decatur/Kirkwood/Avondale Estate, but don't want to live in a crappy house. 2 years we may have priced a couple of ours a little lower not realizing the market had changed so rapidly.

Just make sure when you run your numbers, you are baking in a property management fee so that if and when the time comes and you are ready to hire a property manager to help you scale, you can do so.

I would take the payment, give the tenant a fresh start, and move on.