What you will have to do is find the right house for you that also has the right lay out.

Expand this to all other negatives like main streets, near railroad tracks, near commercial units, under airport flight paths, no garages (this may not be the case in all areas), no yards, poor layouts that can not be laid out differently, too many steps leading to the fr t door ( I just learned this harsh lesson a year and a half ago), etc. . . . .As far as the foundation issue, that was actually a good thing.

I have found you can charge a premium rate for including a washer and dryer.The one scenario where I believe it would be worth it is if you can convert the space currently with the washer and dryer into something more valuable to the layout.

I bet you'd get some movement/results there.Most of what you paid for there was the time for someone to go out and do all that 'take off' time to lay out your house and document what was there. 

This was a bank repo that had good bones but needed deep cosmetic and layout changes.

I know this sounds a little counter intuitive but if they have high standards for what a property should be to be rentable it will save me a lot of money and headache on the back end with getting quality tenants and management.

We want to hire more people to work for us but the layout is odd and someone would have to walk through another person's lesson to get to their room. 

Personally, I've invested in single families that have unique layouts with separate entrances, basement apartment apartments, etc.

The location and layout of the property was incredible - right in wine country, flooded with thousands of tourists each year for apple season, an hour from Lake Tahoe and Sacramento, close to the highway, right down the street from the grocery store, and so many outdoorsy things to do around the area.

One of the least expensive routes (assuming the layout is good).