He is a contractor in a neighboring town and was able to give me a ball park guess on the costs and who to call.  

And I made some big mistakes. but I also got the ball rolling and wound up with some amazing properties that have performed well and appreciated like crazy.So I guess my encouragement to you is to to go for it!

I guess my question is, has anyone ever gotten a home loan around the same time you were trying to get a business loan (or whatever type of loan you did get for your VR investment)?

I am guessing the 5% you are talking about is vacancy rate?

We do have a partnership agreement, or at least  we have a document indicating ownership and how income and expenses are distributed among my partners, signed by each of us (if partnership agreement is something more official than that that, then I guess we will have to figure that out). 

I would guess that for every good one, there are 10 bad ones out there.You need to get as many recommendations and references as you can.

So was repairing the leak at my expense.My guess is they won't hurry or let you do anything. 

My guess is the answer boils down to: how much $ to do it, how long will it take to finish, how much rent will lost (if any), how much can I increase the rent with these improvements!

Most properties are selling well above assessment so its just kind of an educated guess based off her thoughts and the assessment. 

@Don Ireland Depends on the local authority I guess.