My wife and I have a discover card that we use for gas and some other items and we pay it off each month.

He picks out of 7-10 "common" rehab category cost items (replacing carpet, painting, etc.) , for different trim levels.  2).

I'd assess the state of his apartment, deduct any damaged items with a full accounting of how you spent the money - which is your obligation as a landlord - then send any remaining money back to him. 

I live just west of Portland, and I'm looking to get into REI a little more to supplement my retirement as I'm self-employed (General Contractor) and don't have much of a traditional 401k, etc.I started out buying a duplex as my first house back in 2005, which I lived in one side for 7 years and rented out the other.  

Most people have clauses in their leases that state tenant must report items needing repair rather than fixing them.

I don't add anything to traditional financing due to child support destroying DTI, so I've go to look elsewhere to move on the 2nd home. 

I get to HD, start talking to the manager, surprisingly everyone sprung into action, they are calling to get the surveillance video, calling other stores, attempting to block the items from being returned w/o the receipt, which I had by the way.In the mist of all these advocates working for me, i get a text.

Taxes on this property if in Montgomery county would be aprox 1100 to 1400 a year, insurance would run 800 year  so you need to make sure there is not lots of deffered maintenance ,new heating system 3000 and new roof 6000, etc. you could eat up your cash flow quickly on these items.

In my previous thread I asked about getting around fha owner occupancy requirements with traditional funding but the best anyone could come up with was basically taking out a private/hard money loan.I have a property that I can buy for 71k and needs 15k in rehab costs. 

You mentioned information, what specific items are you referencing?