I always imagined that my first flip would be a live in flip because it seems less risky, so I suppose I should start looking at homes that are within my budget and have some room for improvement.

As Prashant said, the sanding can improve the floors more than you think.

In your area I believe they may be required to have a license or be registered as a Home Improvement Contractor.

Any Bank of America employee that challenged these practices was fired.

Hard to believe that this would improve the local neighborhood.

We were seeing a lot of deals in Atlanta that met the 2% rule over the past few years (I recently purchased one where I was all-in for $40K and rents were about $900/month), but these deals have now disappeared now that the market is improving and a lot of institutional investors have entered the market.Real estate is very local, and what might work in one area isn't necessarily going to work in other areas...

I will execute 1-3 of the requests pro bono (but not really, since I intend for the tenant to stay and instead of re-leasing costs I am improving the property).. and then may save a couple of the requests for re-lease negotiations/price bumps/renewals etc.

Not all, of course (unless you believe that Skynet is coming) but the situation will not improve over time.And the productivity gains will be realized only by business owners and an ever-smaller circle of employees.

I think the debt is acceptable and improves the risk-adjusted ROI as long as the Debt Coverage Ratio (NOI/P&I) at time of property purchase meets an appropriate threshold.

Gauging market upswing involves a lot of guesswork.Neighborhood improvement is often a J-Curve.