There are reasons all owners do not improve their rental houses year over year, sometimes there is a demand for lower quality homes with inexpensive rents.

Let's assume they're in KC and the average rent collected is $1000 a month...That's 32,000 a month in revenue for a company that has 27,000 to 32,000 a month in expenses.  

What’s some inexpensive ways to repair or replace a walkway? 

Montpelier is still Montpelier but there are some inexpensive entry points for a first timer.  

Provided the preceding 12 months (or 11/12) were all paid no later than a certain date (i.e. 3rd):* Offer a low max rent escalator (1-2%) for lease renewals * Offer inexpensive but high perceived value items (i.e. big screen TV) for lease renewals * Provide a Winter Fuel Credit in December if tenants pay for heating fuel  * Offer a choice of unit upgrades that you may have been planning to do anyway (repaint, new appliance, ceiling fans, etc.)Mike

Your plan has to many moving parts for such a novice investor, I would keep it simple for now and sell and purchase couple more inexpensive investments and get a higher return on your investment. 

If I were to do this project over from the start I could have saved close to $5K in expenses.

You don't have to pay hundreds of dollars to join one as there are free and inexpensive groups out there.Sounds like you're ready to stop dreaming about investing and start doing it!  

Very water resilient, durable, and relatively inexpensive..  

Each renovation is inexpensive, and it would be so much simpler to treat them as deductions for the 2016 tax year rather than depreciate them over several years.