I don’t think reality bares out the deferred maintenance is fully priced in at the retail home buyer level. There are rare exceptions or more often partial exceptions. Sometimes a credit is excessive for one component of a house with problems, but over all it won’t pencil out.
There is a demand factor.Too many people will buy at a price higher and plug away at the rehab vs. their option of buying the identical house made turnkey. The benefits of the equity position and the lower carrying costs are the trade off… basically a fixer can be a safety net.