@Taye Nguyen California being a deed state has, if you are the winning bidder, a year litigation period. 

I do think I have bought some of his stuff though on ebay for a couple hundred dollars.......plus someone else underlined all the important stuff for me.....win-win :)  If I remember right?  

I also am contributing 10% to my Roth 401k at my new job, which will be about 6k per year after my employer match and taxes!

I'd appreciate your suggestions on moving forward to make this a win/win.

If you have the option to redo the floors, then most flooring contractors can do a good job of it, and even match existing flooring in adjacent areas, if needed.

3 K for paint.. get contractor grade paint, color match to any sample you want and paint the whole house the same color.

There is a very simple formula to winning the game of Monopoly that helps someone win almost every time.  

I have never hired a contractor before.The property needs to have the deck redone, foundation repaired (pier and beam), 2 bathrooms gutted and redone, removing some linoleum flooring and replacing with matching hardwood, possible HVAC installation.

To do this you must find the correct Market and Micro markets to invest in where the Property Profiles in these Markets match the Criteria from your Plan.Once your "base" is at least twice as wide ($1M)  as you started with ($500k), continue to flip the new base ($1M), reinvesting just the seed money (over and over again), but spending your continuous stream of profits to buy Cash Flow Properties.

That's a win in my book!!