If they are regular IRAs you will pay taxes on those funds.

If he is more involved or engages in the activity with regularity it would be treated accordingly as self employment Which could be a good thing from a tax planning standpoint.

Do granite counters make a worth while investment or are renters there looking for cheap, safe and clean?

Troop levels at the base change on a fairly regular basis. 

I'll be sure to post regularly on my REI adventures!

Some property managers require a receipt from a cleaning company to release the security deposit.

So in the case of me purchasing a property outright, even if I'm licensed, wouldn't I have the fiduciary duty to myself as the buyer, much like an buyer's agent would to their client in a regular real estate transaction?

If you have a regular buyers agent then ask them to look over it and figure out a way to compensate them. 

Some investors would paint and do a clean up and buy what appliances need replacing and say it's 'livable'.

The spiral round duct cost double the cost of in-wall duct, but that is more than made up for in savings for creating soffits to house regular duct.