It’s empty now and really doesn’t need much work but I plan to polish it up some first.

It's crazy how much of my valuation hinges on this one number, and now that I'm getting ready to put in offers, I'm starting to realize that my model will suffer from serious GIGO (Garbage in garbage out) if I can't nail down rental comps.

Polish it up, rent it, and take the rest of my funds for another down payment for property next year?

@Rebecca Holmes I never thought of the neighborhood and city meetings, that would be a good idea once I nail down where I want to invest. 

The margin between a fix-up property and one that has had all the spit and polish done is what I think you are asking for.

@Christian Wathne Stephanie hit the nail on the head for you ^.If you have owned your rentals for less than 2 years, you are calculating the income properly, i.e. gross rents - PITIA x .75.

Factor in more if you want good rent.These photos are highly polished shown the best view by listing agent.

All of this was based on my research so far, I still need to determine the legality of buying during probate and how that works as well as nail down some of these costs. 

Edge of top tiles is biggest issue, I've both had them rounded over by granite shop for $5 each, and used diamond pads in a drill to polish out the square edge.

I am curious how the city might go about regulating this since you cannot nail down the exact address of the properties by simply surfing the website.