You can improve it.

The reason behind this is so all of the neighbors can see that you're working on your outside and people will start buying things and improving their own properties.

As an investor you have less stress, you don't have to where a yellow or blue blazer, no need to look for the balloon in the air and don't have to pay dues, attend meetings, meet a quota, do a coop with agents who take part of your commissionJust think no floor duty, no driving customers around to look at houses,  waste your time and gas. sap your energy and leaving you only to buy a property from their brother in law who just get their licenseOh YES, the freedom to make all the money your are worth, no need  for the hassle of finding listings, prospecting, floor duty.......oh the freedom that an investor has, oh the pleasure of sleeping late, making creative offers, doing subject to existing financing, delayed settlements, collecting assignment fees.....oh the sweet freedom of cash flow and free time.

Lucky for us, the market continued to improve over the years...we sold it the 2nd time for $143,500.Add up the costs, and the sleepless nights, and we still did pretty well.True Story and My First Deal  and a big education - I never stopped!

One of my first (of many) concerns will be to not overdo improvements, being as I tend toward, but am not a full blown perfectionist.I'm sure I'll have more specific questions as I go, but for now I'm just schooling myself on the basics here at BP!

If they have a smart phone take a video and photograph of the status and the repair, just in case have a record of your attempt to improve conditions. 

Halfway through the electrical job, someone broke in and stole the electrical wiring and the copper in the Air conditioner.

Just as an example on one of them...they way over improved the property for the price point, and they also did not factor in the fact that this property did not have a yard...and Frederick is a very dog friendly city...so not having that yard really brought down the value.

In my previous situation, we built bridges, small health clinics, and schools from ground up, currently we do tenant improvements, so still, even with my construction experience previously, there is still a transition/learning curve.

@Nate Burnett It would be interesting to see if the light rails actually improved property values.