(New carpets, Siding, Paint, maybe just a few appliances) The reason being is that many (many) people seem to forget that rental housing is incredibly hard to come by in small towns or outskirts of cities where the primary industries are medical clinics, restaurants, bars, farms, and factories.

Its a lot more tedious that it seems or sounds.

“[C]hoice of personal expenditures” seems rather flippant when buying food, children’s clothing, gasoline, or utilities taxes.All taxes have negatives, but you’ll never see state trooper salaries paid exclusively out of bake sale proceeds.The only legitimate question is: Is the tax system sustainable? 

My worry is that if we offer something it might create a snowball effect ( car damage reimbursement , etc )We offered to take some $ off the rent until driveway is fully functional but that doesn’t seem to be satisfactory to them .Thankyou for any advice   !

Anyone ever wonder why seemingly every new landlord wants to rent to traveling nurses.

You seem to have some experience in this area where I don't.

Now I'm fairly new to wholesaling so I'm not exactly sure how to go about this process involving homes with mortgages but it doesn't seem like it would be a good deal.

Sometimes it seems as though brokers are not really interested in you unless or until you have your license.

The buyer behavior described by the OP does not seem surprising at all. 

It appears the units are below market, however with some cosmetic repairs and perhaps some capex's I feel I could increase the rent by at minimum (based on local comps) 68%.I would offer 85% of list and estimated $20,000 in repairs/upgrades (this is probably a generous estimate - the property appears to be in good shape, basically needs a face lift).With all these figures, including the 50% rule, financing with 20% down @ 3.5%, I come out to a profit of $262 per unit and a cash-on-cash return of 9.53%.So, does this seems reasonable?