I know that article might seem to make it appear that you can build that cheap I just don't see how its possible.  

Utterly destroys a hardwood floor that would be almost impossible to bring back in the future.Painting floors is cheap.

here in baltimore there are a ton of rough neighborhoods, I frequently go through them when looking at deals, and lots of investors gobble up cheap houses in them.I was tossing around the idea of starting a field services service where I would take pictures of the entire property, do a written report of the condition (not inspection) just visual writeup.

Someone took advantage of you is what it sounds like but you took the risk as I am sure the cheap price was attractive.

They are a very cheap upgrade and make your bathroom really Stand out.

Also, take into consideration that SFR foreclosures are in abundance, and cheap. 

Not cheap though. 

We have good contractors we used on our last project and they quoted $350,000 (they are good AND cheap) for the renovation for the property as is, but we would probably add kitchens to the efficiencies and make the 9 singles into three two bedroom units.

Refi escrows are pretty cheap.

I need to get someone to pay $2,000 a month in rent, so this is not a simple matter of "go as cheap as you can to save money and not offend the tenant."