This will avoid the person running away with your money and will allow other contractors to potentially provide feedback on his work(to see if they are good or bad).Yes - this does mean having to individually hire and find contractors for electricians, plumbers, roofers, flooring people.

The commercial has been empty for almost 30 yrs (old liquor store) and needs floor to ceiling reno.

The listing says 4 gas meters, and that is very unusual for a 2 unit.  99% of the time there is 1 gas meter per legal unit (usually 1 electric per floor so that is not a good indicator)   Public records shows 3,647 sq feet, and that is almost always just for legal unit. 

No luck.The context here is, I have a 3 storied apartment where I am on 3rd floor and have airbnb guests on 2nd floor.

Purchase price: $157,000 Bought property in 2010 at auction; painted & new flooring throughout, it has a large outbuilding that we still use for storage.

She bought a place and rents out the top floor and it works well.

A small rehab, the biggest item was re-flooring the entire house. 

Home Depot has a sale twice a year for free installation Berber carpet generally holds up better than standard carpetAnother thing to consider is that carpet install time is generally far faster than the vinyl flooring.

The house needs damn near everything besides flooring and gutters.

Purchase price: $280,000 Cash invested: $65,000 Sale price: $390,000 3 Bedroom town house needed significant updates.Kitchen, bathrooms, paint through out and refinishing floors.