Floors, paint, kitchen cabinets ( no counters), baths etc... well about a month or so ago, after the owner had finally accepted our offer, someone broke into the house and stole all the kitchen and bathroom cabinets.

Hey Davis, I'm an agent here in the Charlotte area, I'd love to get in touch and talk strategy, as I work with hundreds of investors in NC.

A successful investor's time may be worth hundreds of dollars per hour.

This smaller rehab would be repairing some couple foot by couple foot holes in the wall and ceiling, replacing several broken doors, refinishing the wood floors, putting new linoleum in the bathroom, putting in new cabinets (but keeping the sink) and painting everything.

A few hundred dollars for a trip is nothing compared to sinking 1000's in a bad property. 

I had purchased this condo 2 years ago and it looked like the Seller had just upgraded the bath & kitchen (including installing a new countertop & cabinets), at that time.4) If I’m allowed to deduct their deposit, do I just need a quote for this, or would we actually have to get the work done?

I personally know people who bought brand new, multi-million dollar, beautiful luxury homes, only to have serious foundation settling over the first 5-10 years of ownership (and the repair bill was in the hundreds of thousands!).

Therefore, by doing the marketing, coordination, and application review yourself, which could happen remotely, you can save hundreds to a thousand in just one turnover.What's for real estate agents?

Presuming that you are planning to buy multiple properties over time, eventually investing hundreds of thousands of dollars through a given turnkey company, why would you not spend a few hundred dollars to hop on a plane to check out both the property and their operation for yourself?  

You could end up with splatters all over your floors, trim, ceilings and cabinets.