Even Hilltop has improved significantly.  

But being born and raised in Oregon were we have no basic vandalism and theft issues and hardly any Section 8 and people pay there rent from auto drafts he just did not know what he did not know.. he dumps another 600k into this does the common area improvements..

Those improvements are probably already factored into the price.Might make sense for owner-occupied considering you would not have another housing payment and or cash purchase which don't sound like a good fit for you at the moment.Nice job of coming to a decision based on good data instead of "ballparking it."

Analyze the property and budget for the improvements needed to make it a much more valuable property than what it is now.

If the rental rates are higher in the area you're considering, it's a good bet there is more demand there than inventory.  

Since this property mentioned they had some deferred maintenance in the listing I added $10,000 for improvements. 

We are focusing on buy, improve and hold for short term and long term rentals.

If I were you I would go ahead and do the improvements, but don't omit the part where you raise the rent a little bit. 

Start looking for all cash deals, hard money, or cash-out refi from you current inventory to allow an all cash offer.

You don't say how much you are putting down, but increasing that amount up to 20% if you haven't already and lengthening the term to 30 years could help improve the cash flow.