Keep a good part of your focus on the rent you can achieve with the improvements you're making.

I would do it as long as the income is right and stable and she seems like she wants to improve , maybe a additional deposit 

Just not sure how much more I want to put into it, versus renting as is.

I prefer to buy when unemployment is high, and just ready to improve.

The neighborhood itself has people improving their homes, and young artist types moving in.

I really want to improve myself and your idea is a huge step in the right direction . one more point you mentioned which I consider an eye opener is how selling a house could be frightening , I never sold my a house of mine , therefore , I never thought of it .  

I like to determine how old the major capital improvements are and how much life they have left.

I agree it's good to have one, I just don't have time to cut into the wall right now and was hoping I could delay this improvement.

We have put a lot of time and money into improving it.  

@Jake Peterson @Brandon Turner has a couple good recommendations for deciding if you're in a good location in his book "The book on rental property investing"... he gives a few different tools to search withCrime stats - www.crimereports.com Schools - www.greatschools.orgjobs versus unemployment - he said he uses www.city-data.com drug use in the area the overall look of the neighborhood done by just driving around