Very helpful.We did visit the place a couple of times a year, but never noticed any damage because their humongous furniture was covering everything up.I don't plan to charge them for most of the stuff I mentioned, other than repainting the walls they painted and repairing all the walls they messed up.

Also I love stuff like this (ie Sharpening the saw -- Stephen Covey's 7 Habit's of Highly Effective People)Thanks!

That tax deed stuff seems like more of a headache than I am willing to put in to this career, but still, I am sure there are some gems out there for people interested in that. 

This is sophisticated stuff but it is difficult to forecast not only future rents and expenses but the eventual sale price. should that potential increase be considered when evaluating a property?

I wish I could do stuff like that here in Rochester NY.  

They legitimately have too much going on and they don't get to stuff but they will eventually get to it, they are disorganized, they are lazy, they don't care etc.

In any case it would not be illegal for her to live in this property but always be over at her fiance's house and rent out a "room" to another family for a year and then change the lease to be for the whole house after a year.She could put a bed and some of her stuff in the smallest room and lock it in case anyone ever decided to investigate.

The expensive stuff is insured licensed trades: plumbing, HVAC, electric, roof.

That's good stuff to know. 

I agree with most of the comments that this is a big and difficult first project.Couple that with doing it from the other end of the country will make it vastly more difficult.Do you at least still have family and friends locally that could check in on stuff for you periodically if you did the project.