A heating tech can tell you all kinds of stuff, from temperature differentials across intakes and blowers to steam pressure levels, etc. that your handy man won't have any information about. 

We are remodeling our investment home in FL and are considering using pressure-treated wood to wall in the lanai and carport instead of brick.The enclosed lanai will be a dining room.

Dog poop carpets, stains on most of the walls, siding needs pressure wash and paint, etc.

I'm fine with that, as I live in a Cincinnati suburb where frankly the valuations just don't fluctuate all that much, even in really bad times like 08-09 where we saw maybe 10-20% downward pressure on average.  

@Steven Harrington Other than the difference between the East Side of Providence, and East Providence, which @Bruno C. mentioned, your impressions about the East Side and West End/Federal Hill are essentially correct.I would offer two thoughts.First, if the numbers don't make sense, don't feel pressure to buy just because "everyone else" is.

Also it won't hurt to go ahead and list the property on Zillow so that you can gauge the interest for the apartment.

Funds vs Individual Syndications from an LP perspective:Funds offer: more diversity, typically longer hold time, In some cases multiple state K1's which can add to CPA costs, less ability to vet individual deals, in some cases money can be tied up without being deployed or may be deployed into subpar investments because of pressure from LP's to deploy/get a return on money. 

In one of the businesses I own (pressure washing) everyone thinks they have a truck and a washer and they are in business... during the good times.

., than I could find when I did my own research, but their handyman for the smaller jobs is expensive and the contractors they use are definitely higher on things like pressure-washing, landscaping, etc., so I try to schedule those on my own.  

Without knowing your cash on cash return for each property, it's difficult to gauge it against any other way in which you might be investing the money.