I don't think your wood planks or bead board are going to look good and I'm not sure its going to be as easy as you think to go over the popcorn, as the surface isn't going to be smooth.

It is a buyers market, so my advice is to position yourself to be able to purchase if a deal surfaces. 

Can't help with the ATL or legal aspect, but most/all electronic read meters still have the old fashioned dial as well.

And no, many investors don't think to ask for it until a history of claims surfaces after it has been purchased.

Any insight as I have "considered" it, but on surface seems risky.

It really lays all the info out there in an intuitive fashion.

They're very responsive and found a tenant for me in an expedient fashion.

Currently, we have 20 properties of which two are  higher end stilt Beach houses in Myrtle Beach,SC We are from Michigan but went south not west 😁Best of luck but the best way to get going is just old fashioned cash and buy what you can, grind to get to a cash out refinance and then buy more.

We have large flooring companies that take care of all hard surfaces so one stop shopping and they have designers on staff.. so floor counter tops tile all one stop.dig out excavator will do all utl hooks ups and back fill one stop.Painters will do all your chalking the rest of the list is as stated above.. 

. -- definitely not a war zone.The problem I've found with those areas (Stone Mountain is a great example), is that there is so much inventory that it can be difficult to acquire tenants at market rents in a timely fashion.