This is where you take a split-level home or a home with a walk-out basement and put up a wall and a kitchen/kitchenette in the basement to create two separate units. 

New flooring, kitchen, baths, roof, and more.

Door, window, whatever you need to do.  

Have coffee at the kitchen table, and explain the benefits for them selling to you directly. 

And with those factors I'm navigating the dichotomy.To get specific, the SECURE act also adds to that unease as it forces all that money to be withdrawn in a 10 year window.

I believe any value add could be done to the kitchen cabinets, appliances, flooring, and adding a fence.

It seems like every window has bars over it, so that doesn't make me feel 100, but..idk...what do ya'll think?

For value-add opportunities, bathrooms and kitchens are where you'll see the most return on value because this is where you can put most of the shiny and pretty things buyers like to see in homes.

‘This new kitchen with granite countertops is the only one I have seen in this neighborhood, after visiting 5 properties in a 3-mile radius.

It's virtually impossible to get even air flow from all vents, and you usually don't want even air flow from all vents anyway as some areas will need greater volume and others less volume depending on a lot of factors such as where the room is located in the building, windows and other low-R value fixtures, exposure to south/west vs. north/east, ceiling height, etc.