You can rectify shoddy carpentry or shoddy plumbing without having to pay an arm and leg to contractors.

> Generally, what are the requirements to install individual water meters in an apartment.As long as there is an individual pipe to each apartment, the plumbing part is pretty simple: you cut about 6" of pipe out, install the fittings for the meter, install the meter, and install a wire jumper around the meter (in case the electrical service is grounded to the water pipe).It helps if the meter is somewhere that somebody can read it each month. 

I was initially quoted 250k to get the whole building in high end rentable order, but we don’t want to borrow so much extra money so now the quote is 150k for the whole building including full electrical and plumbing and new floors on the top two levels (the current floors are old cracked laminated tile on a plywood sub floor that is leaning into the center of the building).

I rehabbed it as time permitted, but when I move out making it a rental everything had been redone except the big items (foundation, roof, heater, plumbing (except we did the sewer), and electrical).  

I didn't have any experience with this type of thing, but I will be on the lookout for it in the future.Drain pipes for plumbing were old and some were in bad shape.

I did a full rehab on this property including landscaping, new flooring, fresh paint, new kitchen, new plumbing, new bathrooms, etc.

I've seen all sorts of plumbing issues but have never encountered it.

This could be a bid from a contractor to fix items such as roofs, driveways, plumbing, etc or it could be financial numbers showing their income vs comps of other recently sold, to show why your valuation is far off. 

I had some questions for the sellers about how long term the tenants were as well as some major capex questions due to the house being 100 years old (concerns about condition of slate roof, wiring, plumbing, etc.). 

Floors, drywall, electric, roof, maybe plumbing, but I’m no expert and can not evaluate these things myself.