Also, dont forget to add other costs to your depreciable basis of the house such as:1) if any improvements were done to the house2) The following items are some of the settlement fees or closing costs you can include in the basis of your property.

Our plan is to live in the stick built home that is there now, improve the lot add a Manufactured Home, rent it out, then rent the first home and move on to the next deal ASAP. 

Primarily I build custom furniture, as far as the home improvement side: general home repair (doors, drywall, paint etc).  

My question is, what kinds of things should I look to improve, and how do you stop yourself from going further?

I am looking at a building that I can't get access to until after I buy it at the tax sale. 

Wayne, Westland, Livonia, and Redford are all blue-collar cities that are accessible to Detroit.

But if you do then it's absolutely acceptable for you to access cash from any other source. 

As long as you connect with good sponsors you'll have access to deal flow that provides truly passive income and capital appreciation in a tax efficient vehicle.One final suggestion: if you go this route evaluate/underwrite a ton of deals before you participate.Happy Hunting Darin!

For bigger deals, you are looking to make improvements to the structure and management to increase the cap rate.

I've seen some examples of an investor finding a 500k place for 300k, putting in 60k of improvements, then renting for 3,000/month.