Mortgage liens are generally junior to government liens, therefore, additional diligence is necessary to ensure that those liens are not on title or that you are accounting for additional costs when purchasing the property.

Basically, I'd like to ask the seller to give me a credit for the cost to submeter the gas and water lines during the sale.

The problem is that I live in California (which is cost prohibitive for me currently to "buy local") and must rely on remote management that is local to the investment area. 

Sometimes people complain about the cost of cleaning.

I'm wondering if it's worth the crazy labor cost to pay someone to do the work, or if it's a project I could do myself.  

All the while family isn't helping even when they can and the tenant isn't helping themselves because they still buy smokes/weed but hey the landlord should absorb that cost?  

I'd start by having a realtor walk through it with you and determine how much things would cost to do and what it would add to the value of the home. 

We were allowed $58,000 in rehab costs.

I'm leaving out deductions for closing costs, maintenance, repairs etc.Say I buy a house for $300k, land value is $100k.

I would not paint because it increases maintenance costs.