Three of them were decently sized compared to homes in that area and the 4th bedroom was quite small with a rather useless layout, so I combined it with the 3rd bedroom and made a master suite with a full master bath. 

2) Does you lease lay out the different, explicit reasons why you may withhold their deposit?

Lay out how much you're raising the rent, explain how often you plan to increase their rent (annually?

If they say yes then I lay out my offer and explain it to the seller.  

Can you afford to lay out all the renovation money at one time?  

I considered that but due to the layout I don't think removing or opening up a wall is possible.

Make sure you lay out how deposits are to be returned to the tenants as a whole and damages are assessed as a whole.

Thanks for the very detailed layout, very reasonable approach.

There are a lot of factors which go into how quickly the place rents, from the condition/features/layout of the property itself, the neighborhood, how you promote it, how picky you are about who you rent to, your price, neighborhood competition, the time of the month, the weather, and many other factors.My process is to advertise right - promote what is good about the property and disclose what is bad - I don't want to waste a tenant's time (and my own) by misleading them about the fact that there is no laundry hookups or they will have a tough time finding parking.  

Is the layout regular or is it funky?