For my money I could see having one of the several successful investors on BP who offer coaching on their specialties help, once you are already involved, to improve what you do.

Use it as a preliminary step to help you weed out properties.As the housing market improves we'll find fewer and fewer areas that can meet the "2% rule" but that doesn't mean there isn't money to be made in rentals

Personally if the area is staying the same or improving and you have good cash flow.

You then sell that contract for a fee or do a double close, typically to an investor who is looking to improve the property and either rent it out or resell for a profit. 

These properties can not be improved - the market has said no.  

A Minor quibble, but I am sure it will probably be solved in the next improvements.

Hence the wantrepreneur reference as we are spending this time learning what it is we can do to improve our future experiences.

I have started to run across a lot of Fannie Mae properties that have been classified as "Improved Properties".   

If you replace a water heater you have to take the cost of that and compare it to the value of the plumbing in the building, to determine if it was a repair or improvement.

We have made various improvements to the units and our gross monthly rent is currently $1,885 which puts our cash flow around $800 per month.We save all of our cash flow and keep it in a small business checking account.