Other damage includes major holes in the walls for plumbing access (shower), water damage around the doors, not so small areas of patched walls done very poorly (possible water damage 'repair'), holes in doors, window screens missing, possible water leaks from roof (?)

He said he bought it approx 4 years ago and replaced the roof, new carpet, siding, and HVAC.

Disadvantage: getting a SFH instead of more units under one roof,  as we will live in it we will have to do mortgage payments without other units' support as in a 2-4 unit property.Option 3: wait till equity in out triplex will grow closer to 20% and then refi. 

I think we'll only need to pay pros for the planning, concrete pouring, and roofing.

The roof needs replacing and there is damage to the home.  

Then CapEx will come along and eat your lunch in the long haul since all this time you were only budgeting 10% and didn't realize that it does not scale with gross rents and when the roof goes out it costs what it costs to replace; the roof does not know nor does it care what the unit is rented for.

Screw fuse circuit breakers. central air units from around 2008, Roof redone in 2010.

You'll have to be able to differentiate between an emergency (roof coming off, front door smashed in and unlockable, no heat during winter, pipe burst and water leaking/pouring in the unit, etc) and what's something that can be added to a maintenance list and handled in one visit so the tenant knows how you'll take care of their problems.Doing the above involves setting standards for proper communication with you.

Many times there's a pretty steep cost advantage with a national company with economies of scale vs a local attorney creating them one off.

I have two adult sons who are also getting into this work and I have worked with them on different projects over the past few years (got em started on roofing work when they were still single digits in age).I look forward to learning from others on this sight and to providing any insights I can along the way.