How’s the vacancy and overall quality of tenants applying in Oildale? 

Home Depot had an MSI "Rigid Core Multilayer LVT" product for $1.69/sf, with underlayment already attached, that says it's waterproof, scratch resistant, mold resistant, which are the qualities of SPC.

.$575 to him to pay down the debt ($338k - Outstanding Mortgage $96k = $242k our debt to him - $575/mo)I'm wondering are there any other ideas on how we can minimize our payments or our future capital gains taxes that we'd pay when purchasing a property from a family member? 

i own a high quality (B plus) 3- family in Western MA.

However as dictated, contractors are in high demand as well, so this can push back your times.One of the reasons to focus on high quality teams however is they typically have those relationships and cycles down to a t.

For all of you, what has been a value add you've done to make peoples stay higher quality.

I would say the horror stories that you hear are likely related to the quality of tenant that you rent to, and dependent on the type of property that you intend to purchase.

Ask them if they could give you a couple names of different smaller shops that do quality work.

The quality of his marketing to get you into the brokerage may be a good indicator of this. 

Clearly you have not been speaking to quality realtors.