Also, see what finishes are used in the local houses....you may over-improve or under-improve your property.The more deals you analyze, the easier this will become.  

He loves our units because they are easy to rent out, but I will be seeing him to tour two new units next week and I will ask him if I have overdone the improvements. 

Would you be financially ok if the commercial tenant went bankrupt or just didn’t renew their lease and it took a year or more without rent to find a new tenant and maybe the new tenant asked for a lot of improvement concessions?

What other tips would you suggest that would improve the overall results when working with a VA?  

We got to bounce ideas off each other to see how we can help each other improve our businesses. 

However, there are no metrics I see right now, along with the actions and proposed actions of the federal government that would indicate to me that housing supply will drastically improve, or interest rates will drastically rise soon, that would lead me to conclude property prices or rent costs won't drop in the near future.

@Arwin Nassiri Be sure to do your due diligence when considering raw land, and consider particularly the cost of getting water and other utilities to the location and whether you can actually build on the land at all - any structures or improvements within 25ft of a Joshua Tree will be difficult, expensive, and likely impossible in most areas - and you generally can't move them either. 

The only time your depreciation basis in a property will increase, is if you add more money into the property via capital improvements.

The hard part with this approach: in a single family with 1 kitchen and 1 bath, I end up budgeting about $450/month just for repairs and long term capital improvements.  

If the other heir fails to step up to probate the property, you may be able to keep all the rent  If the other heir does petition to probate, you could deduct the reasonable and necessary costs of the eviction and of renting the property (but not the costs of improvements).