You may also want to take a look at the training, seminars, guru forum before you spend any money on anyone or anything you find in person or online. 

Would it make sense to take our 25% downpayment and purchase 2 homes in another state rather than spend all of our equity on one home around the Boston area just because it is close?

Is it worth spending even $1.00 PSF if your PM can avoid this by working hard for you to get a renewal? 

I get it, minimal spend for maximum appraisal.Should I be working with my own appraiser to target exactly what we should do to increase the value.

When people stop spending, businesses suffer and as a result they let go of more people.

I currently work at Nellis AFB but my goal is to get out of government and spend the rest of my years working for myself.

To do it right you need to select an acquisition criteria; use a credible data source for real time, specific assessor data; spend time to research the area & understand pricing; and mail legitimate ACTUAL offers directly to sellers.Sure, there is a lot more that goes into it, but that’s the “big picture” about how we find off market deals and flip for profit.  

A big question is; are you prepared to spend the money to update his apartment asap if he moves?

The CPA you spoke to was right, there are tremendous tax benefits for what the IRS calls "real estate professionals" The basic criteria is twofold: 1) you must engage more that half of your 'working' time in real estate related activities. 2) You must spend at least 750 hours involved in RE.What is considered real estate involvement?

You could have ordered the appraisal earlier in the process....most people don’t want to spend the $500 until they know they are approved, but it usually leads to “we are just waiting on the appraisal”.