I would love to try to get the cheaper one at a lower price and do a full renovation which would allow me to custom the unit as I want but I'm resistant because I've heard horror stories from people who did renovation loans where it took a ridiculously long time or the quality of the final work was poor. 

He never saw the house, never inspected it, never rehabbed it, just bought it as-is and continued taking payments from the previous tenet.About 1 year ago (August 2018), my wife and I moved in and started rented from the landlord.While it has been nice renting this place, and the landlord has made things really easy for us, the truth is that the house is severely out-dated esthetically and could definitely use some upgrades functionally.For example, the kitchen is filled with ugly yellow-brown cabinets, tile countertops. 

@Jennifer RysdamAfter 8 years I would expect a mini rehab - cabinets appliances countertops and repainting the entire apartment.

You can add up kitchen cabinets, counter, sink, toilet, bath vanity, tub and all that to give you an idea of some of the costs also.

You can set custom date rules and just keep changing it so that it wont allow for 1 night gaps. 

@Brian PulaskiMostly paint drywalling the ceiling new counter tops painting the cabinet and some new flooring most of it is actually really nice.

Because they are making 10x that on all the other customers

I tend to see stolen light bulbs, smoke detectors, hydraulic door closers (yes), shower curtains and shower curtain rods, toilet paper spindles, medicine cabinet glass/wood shelves, window blinds, they also tend to break ceiling fans.

I hear local lenders are more customer service-oriented and all around better, however, is it worth paying more and consequently spending way more over the course of the loan or should I go with the cheapest rate?

But feel it is going to negatively impact landlords by further scrutiny(and new regulations) from the government which will harm tenants on down the road.I'm not sure how it "harms tenants" any more than any other business harms customers by raising prices.Around 70% of rental property is managed by a professional property manager in Australia whereas it's more like 20% in America.