For me it was in helping to organize people out here in Korea, helping to connect investors in Korea with people in the US, and helping investors / operators organize their business and marketing systems. 

If you want to increase the value, you get your Net Operating Income (NOI) up.

The capex expenses, new A/C, new roof in the timeframes you estimate, combined with normal operating expenses will eat up your profits for sure.However, there could be an appreciation play here.  

I will have a property manager that handles all operations/financials and my self directed IRA will receive all income and pay all expenses.

It's unusual to find an older property without lead paint underneath other layers. 

Learn real estate before trying to deal in real estate.Your insurance agency is a great affiliate operation to real estate, be even better if you got your RE license!

Look for local Coin Operated Laundry Equipment Dealers (Speed Queen, IPSO, Dexter, Whirlpool).

My "real" job allows me to work from home almost entirely, so we would love to find a place we could call our home down there that also had rental units attached, or the real dream of a large 5-10 room place that we could operate full time as a B&B.

Having a stand-alone entity also makes it so much easier to keep the operations of your rental property(ies) separate from your personal finances. 

I may profit by rehabbing because I (a) am a licensed GC (b) own a full retail renovation company that creates a volume i can (c) leverage with manufacturers for direct supply and volume discounting and by which (d) I have the full management and operational team at my disposal to perform on my properties at cost.