. $1250 tenant pays utilitiesThere are 5 boilers for natural gas heat.

A lot depends on the "nature" of that partnership. 

Since a new subdivision by nature has more homes for sale than a more established neighborhood, your home is more of a cookie cutter commodity that will make it more difficult to see a profit until years after completion, unless the tide keeps rolling in but as we know tides, at times, have to recede too.  

What was the nature of the felony... was it violent?  

I'm sensitive to the tenant, especially in these times - but also know that I have my own family to provide for. 

This paywall takes advantage of a natural human psychological emotion called the Sunk Cost Fallacy. 

I upgraded the heating system to natural gas furnaces.

Also, how to tell the tenants/ask them to tidy up for the appraisal without spooking them that the house is being sold or something of that nature?

I found this on Google:New York law provides that “[n]o natural person shall ask or receive, directly or indirectly, compensation . . . for preparing deeds, mortgages, assignments, discharges, leases or any other instruments affecting real estate . . . unless he has been regularly admitted to practice, as an attorney or counselor, in the courts of record in the state” (N.Y.

By doing renovations, you'll be forcing appreciation, along with naturally occurring appreciation through market increases.