Money hard lenders have long-term 30 yr products as well as the typical short term products.They aren't treated the same and are completely different.

My main takeaway, treat RE sales like a business, not a job.

On one hand, whether the updates are done while you still live there or after you move out, they will be done before the property is placed in service for rental purposes and therefore treated the same for future taxes.On the other hand, if you are still living in the property, you jeopardize your claim that the updates are done in order to rent this property.

But they would need to treat that property like an investment.  

I would present myself as the new property manager and make sure they are treated with dignity as they are obviously going through a hard time.

Hopefully I learned my lesson (I have made this mistake before so maybe not).I am glad you are treating it as a learning experience, taking ownership of your role, not letting it turn you off to similar efforts and I suspect you will come out of this more capable of succeeding on subsequent rehabs.Good luck

Treat it as a business so it doesn’t become a job.

The landlord had the place treated for fleas, even though I know for a fact there were none, but is taking it out of my security deposit.

Are you treating it like a business?

This effectively treats cash flowing properties as cash draining properties and puts your DCR upside down after 2-3 properties.