He never reinvested capital back into the place to maintain it and now it needs a lot of work.  

Setting up shop in a model is a good idea and one of the questions I will pose to the developer. 

I have mixed feelings about providing appliances if that is not the norm in your area because that is just another item for you to maintain. 

I would definitely replace the countertop with laminate for minimize cost, upkeep and maintain ability to keep clean.

Paperwork is paperwork, just pay somebody to do it for you, maintain a paralegal who specializes in asset protection and business taxation, this enables you to do paperwork for less than half the price which a regular attorney would charge.

Tenant pays all utilities and maintains yard. 

At less than $20,000 a unit, this property is probably heading down a death spiral in which the rents can not maintain the property so more maintenance is deferred hence rents continue to decline, hence less maintenance, hence less rents....... in the end you have land value.

I think it's an ill-posed question...and I'm not sure how anyone can meaningfully answer it for you...Which are you going to have to do to sell the house at the ARV you're targeting?  

What's the beat way to evict someone and the best way to raise rents while still maintaining a tolerable relationship. 

It might in reality be 6% or lower but I prefer conservative numbers.For Maintainence and Capex, I assume 10% each, in my thinking, you pay into a kitty for maint and Capex until you 5,000 in each and then you can stop holding this money back.