I wanted to refresh the paint on the front doors and shutters as well.

If you paint the WHY to your leadership, I am confident they will let you. 

With the cleaning and the paint refresh, it cost me a total of $850. 

We also initially were only going to exterior paint as needed but ended up Repainting full exterior. it was shocking to see how fast the money was going out.  

And as the buyer (my colleague) is now getting closer to closing it's starting to look like it might be worth just cleaning the place out and doing a very low cost rehab (paint, pressure wash and handyman repairs) for a quick sale.

The home needed everything from stucco repair to painting the exterior and interior of the entire home.

I feel the same way.I think we should be slow to paint everybody teaching notes with the same brush. 

We freshened up the interior with new paint, and a few new trim items, but mostly it was well landscaped and well cared for prior to our assuming the loan on it.

An example of my recommendation to a new investor is to go buy a house with easy re-sale, that needs superficial changes such as painting, landscaping, new carpet, roofing, etc. 

we cleaned up the exterior, painted interiors, added LVP flooring, bbq pits and picnic benches What was the outcome?