The improvements needed are simple cosmetic, sand floor, some new vinyl flooring here and there, paint, kitchen and bathroom upgrades, and new appliances. 

I suspect repairs will take 12 months and I will need 2 years to get the tenants to leave. not sure if the juice is worth the squeeze but the ability to project year over year costs, improvement work and the final refi must be out there in someone's excel folder. or am I over complicating things? 

There are no hardwired ones in the rooms (they're directly outside the rooms because that was the norm in 1998), only battery powered ones, so it would start beeping when the batteries were low and the students would just take the batteries out and never replace them. 

Market driven appreciation is very subjective as opposed to forced appreciation through rent bumps and improving NOI.

Unless you can further elaborate what your building or how it improves the cash-flow/property value I don't see this as a wise investment.

Family has made all all the mortgage payments in the meantime, and incremental improvements to the property over time (added back deck with ramp, double paned windows to all bedrooms and living room).

Because it's raw land...there wasn't much I had to do to it...but after looking at the local comps and how other agents were marketing properties in the area I knew that they were over pricing these properties AND doing a terrible job at marketing the properties with the descriptions & images. ( So I did the opposite by pricing this property correctly, Improving the images, making a video about the property and building a very descriptive ad copy.)What was the outcome?

Factor in the expected life of major improvements and their replacement cost.

@Ernie Sturzinger I guess to answer your question...not taking cash from the deal is perfectly fine and even a wise decision...this means the building needs to generate cash flow...you just need to leave it in reserves or make planned improvements...long-term equity is much more important than monthly cash flow.

The idea is go 50/50 on the down payment and any improvements to the property (likely kitchen and bath upgrades).