I'm gutting the kitchen and basement.

Just sold a foreclosure listing where the bank did $85k+ in renovations including 2 completely new bathrooms, upgraded the kitchen, roof, HVAC, redid the floors, and even landscaping.

It will be a 432sf open studio with a fully functional custom kitchen with all  modern below counter small scale appliances and fixtures in the kitchen and bath.

I have the house broken down into areas (kitchen, bath, exterior, paint, etc.).

Common areas where they habitate are a refrigerator condenser because it is so warm, by a kitchen sink, and in bathroom vanities.  

Nothing horrifically disgusting or anything- more like borderline hoardery stuff - like for example, 8 boxes stacked on top of each other labeled "movies", stinky cat box, bottles of paints all over the kitchen table with just STUFF everywhere.

Cut to about a year later, my brother buys a home for his family and the big-time real estate investor plan sort of fell onto the back burner.

So i redone my living room, redone the floor and bath, the kitchen was fine, but I added new counter tops and a open box oven that cost 60% its retail price and after 1year later I got an appraisal of $87,500, and sold it for 86k and some change.During that time I was always scared to continue my venture in either quitting, and ponder why did I blow so much money on a crappy home?

MLS fees are $500 bucks that I don't have at the moment and time really isn't on my side when it comes to finding listings.

I'm closing on a single family investment property in a few weeks and have a bunch of people interested in renting it due to a Craigslist ad with no photos (we're replacing kitchen appliances and some flooring right away, so I want to use photos of the new stuff).