What else can you do that is low cost, but high appeal, like investing in improving exterior landscaping out front to maximize the amount you sell for.

Roads, improvements, park, services.That reduces from 36 lots to may be 24 lots.

@Ryan Pal You may want to have a policy in place that covers "Improvements and Betterments" as well as Liability. 

I know improvements were made on the process over the last few years including government programs such as HAFA. 

The business typically will have general liability coverage, business personal property, tenant improvements and betterments among other specialized coverages.

The argument is that you should be able to make the necessary improvements to get the property back to fair market value in a years time.  

How much can you rerent for versus the lower rent amount? 

We paid $290,000 for the house, got $10,000 added to the mortage for improvements and put 5% down.

Because of this, I wouldn't use a tax deduction as the motivator to applying the capital.Most often, people will roll the funds into another property or back into the property the debt applies to via capital improvements.

I normally have buyers who are usually more concerned about the livable square footage of the lot versus the actual lot size.