No, HUD doesn't care about your problems or repairs.

Costs of taxes, insurance, repairs, servicing, legal fees all add up pretty darn quick.

The best thing you can do is advise the tenants of their rights when major repairs need to be done but aren't.

I am looking at buying my first rental property and wondering what strategy makes the most sense, I have some cash can buy one house that might not be in an area where the value will go up anytime soon but has slot of renters and the house would need little work if any before its ready to rent, option 2 would buy maybe 2 in that area but they need work so can use a credit card to cover the repairs and help build my credit ( I have a good score just not a real long history which the bank dont seem to like) option 3 would be take the cash I have to cover 20% or higher of a down payment on a house in a better area where rent is 300 higher on average my goal is to buy and hold and rent maybe down the road get into buying and selling thanks for any opinions

The property needs minor repairs say about 15k, it needs HVAC, inside paint and some siding repair.

Compressed natural gas is cheaper than propane but I have not seen fireplaces for CNG yet or individual tanks for CNG.As I said previously, I would not remove a masonry fireplace and chimney and would expect the costs to be thousands, its not an easy job and the repairs to reframe and drywall the inside and reside the outside are just too costly.I have removed swimming pools which I consider a hazard in rental properties but not fireplaces.

Believe me, a 100 year old house is going to need repairs and/or updates if it wasn't done already.

The owner can make a demand for repairs, if not made, the landlord can terminate the lease taking it to a default rent per day past a date for possession or, fix the item and make that part of the rents next due and if unpaid the tenant is in default of paying the rents due.

I know some of the more obvious ones such as mortgage, insurance, taxes, advertising, and repairs/maintenance but what other expenses might a new investor not be expecting?

Let him know that if there's a repair issue, or something illegal going on, you will take care of it.