For you, I think painting the paneling and keeping your trim is the cost effective way to go for a quick flip of such a big square footage.

I mean I have been traveling through that area since 1959 and is has always been in the exact same condition it is in today but the surrounding areas especially around San Jose and Gilroy have exploded in growth, and you can even see some development already pushing against the foot hills. 

Two bedroom one bath units. 1848 total square feet.

Does 700sqft represent the actual surface area of the roof, or is that the square/rectangular area of the floor beneath?

All you can hope for is that you can point out a factual error - however, unless it is square footage, and even that can be tricky if they measured the house themselves, it is unlikely to change the value much at all, as the appraisal is essentially price per square foot (based on comps) multiplied by square footage.

I'm trying to figure out how to leverage a HML to be able to get my foot in on a rental property, even if the rates and costs aren't ideal.

This seemed odd to me that the type of exterior would have such a huge impact on the value of a home that is less than 1000 square feet.

There are no issues actually accessing the panel but the hot water heater is about a foot and a half away from the front of it. 

The biggest bang for your buck is adding square feet, next would probably be increasing bedroom/bath count.  

I mean it is heavy. 1 to 3 pounds per sq foot so you have to figure that into your live load calcs.