I put about $2k into the property for painting, cleaning, landscaping, fridge, etc...)  

So your loan is approved and the only outstanding thing is the property appraisal and clean title.Contact me if I can provide more insight.Upen Patel

In the recent months I was presented with a relatively good deal and have been waiting on the owner to clean the property in order to sale it.

Put a few thousand dollars in it including brand new interior paint, complete cleaning of the house, home staging and so on.

We've made a lot of impovements around the building, keeping things clean, landscaping, etc.  

.), and full clean up of yard and exterior.

I assume a tenant who lived there years ago had an old box of letters which they dumped when doing a clean out.

Pm me for actual numbers and even links if you like.You are right, though, you are seldom going to find a quad in an ideal, dream home, stepford wives type subdivision of white picket fences and Norman  Rockwell charm...The quad on quad street is no one's dream home, but if you have a good product at the right price, you may get dozens of calls ( I have logged a hundred in the peak season) for that clean but affordable humdrum unit on quad street.

Take control of the property, turn it around, charge the tenant for cleaning, repairs, and unpaid charges, and find the next renter.

It used to be that people were trained to the standard of living in base housing where you had to do a full make ready just to get checked out including a seriously overpriced cleaning person.