BG, I understand your plan and wish you luck. Essentially, you’re planning on smoozing the ‘hood and picking up the gems on the cheap before they hit market. A very tried and true method.

A method that also takes substantial overhead effort. We looked at many of those willing but unrealistic sellers before we bought, the relatively universal nature and level
of deferred maintenance was off putting.

A scrubbing and minor tune up would make them marketable as a low end rental, new stove, range, furnance, AC were all common baseline requirements. Ripping out carpet and replacing with tile or carpeting also common. Cabinets, dated but functional, usually. Counter-top, usually questionable. Bathrooms, usually needing new fixtures the whole way around.

That’s to make them just a little better than the very beat up half step above slumlord properties managed by many of the PM firms in OC. (literally, I quit looking at most PM firm properties when I was renting for the slumlord reasons.)

If you find a rentable property that only requires 30-60 days of elbow grease and $5000 of hardware, buy it before anyone wakes up.