Once again, it is advisable to have a conversation about this with you banker prior to taking any action.A good question to ask!

The other response I received was that they had moved all of their items out the 14th and needed remove remaining trash and will give me the keys on Friday.

Everything I've read and/or researched points me away from this conversion, but I do not think I can legally make it an additional bedroom due to the size and set up. 

This is all just an overview but I am hoping to just start a conversation and keep track of what I am doing if it can help other newbies like me. 

Here are some recommendations for you:Find and connect with other BP members that are in your area: https://www.biggerpockets.com/search/usersSet up keyword alerts to be notified of the topics that interest you: http://www.biggerpockets.com/alertsRead Beginner’s Guide: http://www.biggerpockets.com/real-estate-investingIf you wish to tag someone in the conversation on the forum, type @ followed by their name and then select the name of that person which should appear below the comments box.

Here are some recommendations for you:Find and connect with other BP members that are in your area: https://www.biggerpockets.com/search/usersSet up keyword alerts to be notified of the topics that interest you: http://www.biggerpockets.com/alertsRead Beginner’s Guide: http://www.biggerpockets.com/real-estate-investingCheck out BP Podcasts: https://www.biggerpockets.com/podcast If you wish to tag someone in the conversation on the forum, type @ followed by their name and then select the name of that person which should appear below the comments box.

We have a good team in place and would love to converse more openly via a phone conversation, again, thank you for the time I look forward to connecting with you.

Sending out direct mail is great (can be costly if not done correctly and most importantly you need to be consistent), but I would also recommend that you do some driving for dollars and buying list from listsource and cold calling the owners to see if you can start the conversation from there.

For day to day maintenance, you can figure around 5% but CAP Ex depends on the condition and remaining life of your big ticket items like HVAC and roof.

They certainly saw the rip in the screen, the holes in the walls during their inspection.Our lease has a clause to the effect that the tenant has inspected the property and is accepting it 'as is', EXCEPT for items that could not be observed during inspection, for example, water was off, so tenant could not see the faucet drip.