We are also assuming the A class area will increase your quality of life as well for obvious reasons.

Naturally I'm only interested in the cheapest option as I am not trying to sell houses.  

For the last seven-plus years, experts have been predicting an increase.

You CAN do cash out refi on investment property and you CAN do a HELOC (harder to find a lender).If you buy a house CASH and below apprised value or you do work to increase the appraised value you can get UP TO 80% of the appraised value back out of it.

Adding another meter base and city water meter could increase your cost to build a lot, but lower the monthly expenses. 

If you already own the home you live in, then you can only use a FHA loan for a new property if you:1. are moving because of a work-related transfer2. an increase in family size requires a larger homedirect quote:“FHA will not insure more than one Property as a Principal Residence for any Borrower, except as noted below.

Another option to value the property is to project the NOI  at increased rental rates, but use a higher Cap Rate to discount the fact that you'll need to implement these changes.

BUT, the positive would be:+ Catagory A neighborhood with stable renters+ Betting on property value will increase over 10+ yr given the neighborhood+ Turnkey rental, leases in place till 2018Would these positives balance out the lower CAP rate?

Is there any potential to increase rent prices?

If you are doing it in excel - a receipt for $100 that consisted of $25 paint, $25 tools, $50 roof supplies.can be entered into excel like$25 paint$25 tools$50 roof suppliesAt the end of the year you can sum up all the costs by description and provide that to your accountant.A couple things to point outWhether you expense an item or capitalize it will depend on several factors such as if you are increasing the useful life of the item, making it ready for a different use or making it more efficient.