Every closing has a story, and you powering through your first solo deal is inspiring! 

This deal really helped me be more comfortable with investments and understanding the power of a HELOC.

We prefer that this lot of land has power/water/septic already set up.

You need a little buffer for the fact that you have much less negotiating power when it comes to 'necessary' repairs.

For indoor spraying, particularly, consider the extra masking work needed to protect everything that you aren't painting.Many years ago, I had a Wagner "Power Painter" with a backpack for carrying paint on a ladder.

Power washed and painted exterior, removed trees, new windows, painted front door, updated garage door and back door, added door entry from garage into house, new paint throughout the house, renovated 2 bathrooms (one of these bathrooms was a 1/2 bath that we converted into a full bath by combining the adjoining closet and rerouting the plumbing), added a kitchenette/kitchen in the basement.

I am a moderator but do not have that power. 

@Ian KearnsThis just happened to me a a couple months ago.Tenant shut the power off (!!)

You could have easily bought a $44 mini fridge for insulin when the problems started.Seems the landlord made a good faith effort sending out a repair man quickly.Are you really paying $500 or did you just pay a co-pay.What about power outages?

It is very common for tenants to leave windows wide open all winter, leave power on and run water without consideration of cost.