As they move out, I plan to renovate each unit with vinyl plan tile, fresh paint and update bathrooms and kitchens.  

Then in between tenants you could apply a fresh coat of finish if needed.

Baking soda...

I was skimming through and seeing a lot of solid advice above.As someone who is still fairly fresh to rentals, going into my 2nd year and 2nd 4-unit, I'm happy to share something that has worked REALLY well for me, in weeding out a large amount of low-quality renters.I started out by just posting a listing and doing showings and apps as the calls/emails came in... and like the trouble you're having... you can often get a lot of under-qualified applicants coming though.Something I stumbled into, and others do some variation of this, it's not reinventing the wheel or anything... but for me, it's helped A LOT.When I make the post/listing now, I will usually now add somewhere that the space is available on  "x date" for showing (and make that date 3-4 etc days out).

Is he able to dump that $50k or any large portions of into that fresh new solo 401k?

The snow definitely motivates more people to come up, but in my experience (not to say it won't change) but there are always people looking to come up for a ski vacation, even if there isn't "fresh pow".

The gravel was level and fresh.

You want to make sure that is baked into your calculations.

Who wants to get their hair cut on the internet or order a freshly baked cookie online?

Looking to expand now, and will need to have access to fresh capital for cash deals when they arise, I am now looking for a line of credit.