@Morgan N.
My first post here on BP, but I'll take a stab at it. I personally have a few "turnkeys" with the majority of my holdings being pretty far from turnkey. In the end, they usually end up costing about the same out of pocket (and thus, cash flow is relatively similar) but there are a few pros and cons to each.
As far as turnkey goes, the biggest pro is that as soon as you close you can turn right around and rent the property out. One of my turnkeys I had a renter lined up and waiting for the closing to go through. It sure is nice to start that cash flow on day 0.
However, the negative to this is that I personally did not do or oversee the work--and it's always been (in my experience so far) barely average to subpar once you start to scratch below the surface. Their actual work was alright, but they definitely skimped out on a few things and had some other items that were done a little sketchy. It wasn't a huge deal as I recognized 90% of the issues beforehand, but some of them weren't noticeable until after a tenant moved in and ran into an issue down the road. I also don't know the property inside and out the way I like to. The house was still an 'above-average' rental compared to the market, so I was still pleased with the deal and specifics of the property but who knows what is lurking inside those walls...
On the other hand, when I get the non-turnkey props I usually nearly gut them. This has a few advantages. One of the main ones being equity gains (which don't matter as much for B+H people, but it is nice to show to investors/banks once you get big enough). A small example of this was the very first rental I got was already in decent shape, but I really went through and updated it as well as added a permitted bed/bath combo in some existing unused open space (if you can't do the work yourself or don't have a trustworthy contractor, it makes a lot less fiscal sense). The combination of the added living space and updates allowed me to really pull in premium rents/usually less than 24 hours from vacant to rented and the initial (plus ongoing) equity increase has been phenomenal.
Of course the downside is that you have to float the house for ~2 months before you are done with the work and get it rented out. Between mortgage payments & renovation work this process isn't always viable for everyone--especially if you have to sub out a lot of the work and deal with missed deadlines and sub-par execution.
Hopefully it gives you some insight, but there is 100% absolutely nothing wrong with buying turnkey. At the minimum, it definitely reduces initial stress levels significantly :)
