Eco Landing does a great job for my rentals in Columbus GA

Upgraded it.

And ultimately you can force equity as well as benefit from appreciation over time before “housing up” into a better primary and keeping your first property as a rentalMy wife and I used a similar method: -bought a primary and did a lot of upgrades over the course of 3 years (though, we intermittently house hacked with roommates here and there to fund some of them).

Value-Add Upgrades At this juncture in the pandemic timeline, many investors believe that it really doesn’t make sense to upgrade in order to raise rents.

It's a great way to keep upgrading properties without having to pay any capital gains taxes after each sale in order to do so

I lived in it for a while, then kept it when I upgraded to a house.

There will be some major cost savings involved when doing renovations, upgrades or just repairs if planned carefully and purchased in bulk.

Not being able to rent it out as a 2 bedroom is a lost opportunity.Since your mom purchased for cash, it might be worth talking to a lender to cash out so you can do the repairs/upgrades and then use the remaining money to invest elsewhere.

I am working with a new investor and they are looking to get their money into Real Estate investing, but they have ZERO ability to find/negotiate/buy/manage deals and the corresponding upgrades/rental etc. 

Units could maybe use an upgrade if I wanted to go more modern but really unnecessary.