And @Wayne Brooks is correct, the owner of the property is the person who has their name in title, not the person that holds the note.  

If you're going to maintain three residences, that's a different story.

Even when going this route, your assumption is correct it will often times be based of comps since it is not a true commercial unit. 

My keyword alerts include Capital Hill, Capitol Hill (Spell it both correctly and incorrectly), Silver Spring, Rockville, Arlington, Montgomery County, Prince George's County, PG County, Arlington, Alexandria, Trinidad, Dupont, Logan, Columbia Heights, Gaithersburg, Fairfax and so on and so on.

I know this was posted a few days ago, but I think I understand your question correctly.

You may be able to go all the way to the studs and remove the stone and whatever its attached to at once.I think you're absolutely correct about remodeling vs. new construction. 

If the tenant fails to correct the situation, their account is shut off but the utilities revert back into your name so there is no risk of freezing a house or some other issue.I manage 340 units and the utility company notifies us any time a tenant starts an account, closes an account, or gets behind on an account.

But the sponsors (and passive investors) can do very well if market conditions stay favorable or if they exit prior to a correction. 

But if you're saying they had a licensed contractor fix it or inspect it and state it's working properly, but you think it's not repaired correctly, you can call the contractor as there is usually a warranty, which is why most agents demand repairs are made by licensed contractors so you do have some  protection if it's not done correctly.  

That with solid liability insurance is all that I feel I need (LLCs are very expensive and cumbersome to maintain in my state).