My goal is to flip regularly with a long term goal of holding multi-family units as rental income. 

@Adam FrancoFlips are recorded at your regular income tax rate, subject to self-employment tax.You figure out your final cost basis (purchase, rehab, insurance, property taxes, financing, permit fees, commissions, utilities, etc.) and the difference between the sales price and the final cost basis is the profit made that will be taxed as ordinary income.You should speak with a CPA to help organize things and try to minimize the tax impact.

and the relative lack of rentals, you'll have no trouble getting market rents or higher going to regular route.Best of luck!

The dog has urinated on the carpet which will require replacement (professional cleaning did not get the stain/odor out) and possible replacement of the subfloor as well.

My $0.02.Good Luck with Your Clean Up.

Plenty of wholesalers do it this way - they close on the property and spend a few hundred bucks cleaning it out and then they can have as many people inspect the house as they want without the seller objecting, etc.

Something to consider -- maybe a trusted friend could do some of the regular stuff for a fee.

Is there an active Columbus group that meets regularly? 

The back house had long term tenants and the place looked dirty - wasn't taken care of or cleaned in a very long time.

He's an ideal tenant with credit above 750, well above our income requirements, and has a clean background with no evictions/felonies/etc.