3 bed / 1.5 bath SFH just around the corner from my other place in downtown Lexington.

I was looking at another place (that was a disaster) up the road when I drove by this house that had a FSBO sign in the window. I stopped out front and called. It turned out that the owner lived 1.5 hours away and was 15 min out because he had an investor on the way to see the property right then ! I hung around and checked the place out. The other investor showed up and did a walk through taking notes. He said he would think about it then drove off to check on another place. I made an offer and we agreed to a price within a few minutes and I had him a check. Just over a week to close due to the holiday.

I figure it needs about 8k worth of work to be rent ready. 

Looks good, congratulations!  Looks like someone had already started fixing it up.

Yes, the previous owner bought it for 20k, put 15k in repairs and I bought it for 26k.