When we found this deal, there was apparant damage to the carpets in the basement from pet waste, which I immediately thought was an excellent opportunity to get into this house as I was willing to spend some time and money rehabing, where most homebuyers wouldn't be.

The one couple even steam cleaned the carpets.

@James Galla hopefully I understand this right so are you saying if you set aside 20k for a rental property that you bought and say you need to replace the carpet and it cost 2k you would take this expense out of your income from the property in a gradual manner to replace those funds but not explicitly continue to take out money once those funds have been replaced because over time this would become disporportional. 

She left some junk, never returned my keys, and left the house a little messy.

My husband is an electrician now and use to lay carpet when we first met.

Repaint (make it a shade of grey), get rid of any carpeting, put down luxury vinyl laminate flooring. 

replaced the heating system to include central air. replace the carpeting with hard wood floors What was the outcome?

The carpet was brand new two years ago and it's been kept well.

Several of the owners died 20+ years ago and the title is a mess. I

You're not paying $45k and getting away with just new paint and carpets.