Not to say you stop doing or not be involved, no, keep at it as are BUT under the safety of having the Pro every step of the way to protect against the missteps and mistakes that as you have found, are far more costly than the fee such a person would have been charging. 

A comp needs to look like your subject does at the date it closed, it needs to not have concessions or personal property in the sale, and be an arms length transaction.

Get a lock box for the contractors and let them lock up for their safety. 

But safety is another story. 

Key thing is to buy with a margin of safety and understand that state regulation is not likely to favor the smaller landlords like yourself / myself.Decent management will be your secret weapon.

I read an interesting article a few months back about why most people would be better served doing an ARM loan instead of a 30 year fixed.

I would think you would want to replace it, especially if you are doing the expensive part (replacing drywall) already.On top of the safety concerns, insurance should be way cheaper and easier to shop around with updated electric.

In preparation for requesting bids, I have gathered (Googled) some estimate costs for the scope of work I believe will need to completed to raise the value of the property to align with recent comps; however, after checking reviews on Angie's list of local contractors, it became clear that many of the reviews that I was seeing were from happy homeowners who didn't mind spending an arm and a leg for a kitchen remodel that they would be enjoying.

The sellers have agreed to give credit for half of the safety &  health related issues/repairs but only wants to cover the septic replacement with an escrow account as they're hoping that we'll handle the replacement, get reimbursed by the Department of Environmental Conservation/ Catskill Watershed Corporation (CWC) and refill the escrow to reimburse the sellers.

You can get really fancy and make it an ARM, then you will not even notice the rate hit b/c it's from a "starting" rate that's lower due to it being an ARM.