If you can find a professional willing to train you on the routine maintenance of the books, that would be super helpful as well. 

I just sold a good flip opportunity last December and there's an all-Asian crew working on it right now, the Amish are doing framing-for-hire all over the city again, the handyman services are routinely at $75/hr now, Window World is running installations six months behind payment.Any GC you'd want to establish a strong business relationship with is up to his eyeballs in work.

And as noted, you are likely dealing with plaster and lathe.From a cosmetic approach, as noted, keep things in style with the house.  

Did a bunch of cosmetic work that added a ton of value.

If you can save $10k-$15k/year it might be worth it to find a cosmetic fixer and do the work yourself.  

The background/credit check's cost and not having it tied to just your rental.This is all relative to my current market- but I am going to forgo my old routine.

The house required mainly cosmetic repairs, including extensive sheetrock fixes, a remodeled kitchen, updated bathrooms, a fresh paint job and landscaping.

These investors want quick rehab and returns so they can flip and get their money out the deal; and with these types of houses, it’s not worth their attention since on top of minor cosmetics work and upgrades they usually need new electrical or plumbing, HVAC, etc.

Sometimes, you can find one that needs a roof and general cosmetic updating and maybe a furnace (but the electric and plumbing, windows and structure are fine). 

Purchase price: $365,000 Cash invested: $55,000 Sale price: $539,000 Beautiful block home in a very nice pocket that just needed some 21st century cosmetic updates, simple layout changes to make it more open and a roof.