I've used it before and from what others have told me it's improved over the years.

The seller has made no improvements, rents out the properties for below market rates and does virtually no marketing. 

There is some minor improvement in the labor force participation rate, but not enough to save all this. 

A good tool to utilize is excel, you can evaluate a cash flow in minutes.Monthly payment is =PMT(intrate,term,principle) it would look like=PMT(5%/12,180,100000) This is $100,000 at 5% term of 15 years.Then place your estimated occupancy rate, insurance, taxes, an allotment for improvements down the road into a pivot table to automatically subtract.

Changing the carpet out of the years is cosmetic repair/improvement and not required to bring it up to current codes.

Once I own the property, the focus is on what can I do to improve the cash flow from the property?  

I recommend: pass, until your own funding availability is much improved.

My husband and I are interested in getting into flipping too improve ourselves those around us.

My career in home improvement and repair began in 1973 while working for a home improvement company as a door to door canvasser, then I enrolled thru the UAW connected Trade Union Leadership Conferences into building trades training at Cass Tech, learning house wiring and framing.

It always improves but it doesn't always kill it.