The townhouse is overall in a stellar location within the city, has 2 parking spots, laundry, is walkable to 3 metros and downtown DC, has a sizable patio, a dry storage shed that can fit bikes etc, and features that overall make it a desirable city rental for the right person who doesn't want a building.

My wife and I are small, local operators with conservative plans and during 2021-2022, we kept most of our powder dry and steadily paid off our debt.

I've come across many real estate investors who get hysterical and paralyzed when they are trying to decide whether or not to increase rent for a tenant and the spout off some seriously crazy reasoning.Just about everyone has come across investments that were goldmines, tried to convince friends, family and investors with tons of money and those people who were looking for places to invest their money froze as cold and solid as dry ices, got nervous enough to get committed to an insane asylum and only said they could not make a decision whether or not to invest.I call analysis paralysis the inability to make a decision due to lack of experience, lack of the right information, lack of wisdom and lack of education regarding the subject.

At least in NY its almost always requires every unit to be "fire walled" meaning every single unit need to be an encased shell with double 5/8 dry wall or... you need a sprinkler system, all of this requires architectural plans and an investment of $5,000 (ish) to find out its cost prohibitive to do it.  

We’ve noticed that local banks are starting to dry up and not offering our cash out refinance on our rentals.

Aside from sprucing the mechanicals and a few cosmetic items inside, I think I'm going to have to replace the storefront facade (rotting wood around crappy windows & some water damage).  

Pretty cut and dry.  

Also, you can fit a lot more material in it that you can in a pick-up, and it will stay dry in a rain storm.

During that time, here are the capital expenditures I have experienced that were required (i.e. not because my wife wanted some newer fancy stuff):Roof replacement - $5,000, though part of this was covered by insurance (tree went through roof)Bathtub replacement due to poor installation - $1,000Kitchen counters replaced (still serviceable but scratched laminate) - $1500Replacement french door, rotted frame - $500Replacement wood floors for worn carpet, which was replaced once before - $5000There were a couple of odd assorted things -a broken window, etc. 

Wood rot all over, 30 years of being rented out and neglected.