I paid $1100 to a plumber to give me new plumbing lines in the kitchen and to create an attachment for the washer and dryer in the mud room adjacent to the kitchen.  

Horror story #1: we had a tenant that converted the grass area to a mud wrestling pit for girls to wrestle in.  

My contacts range from electricians, plumbers, carpenters, HVAC, drywall, mud and painters.

Bathroom remodels take at least 3-4 days because the new mud needs time to dry and you probably have some subfloor damage.

I have done that already, and in short I came to following high level findings.Positive impact on appreciation: -area was historically undesirable due to association with “East Austin” demographic stereotype, but that his changed rapidly in last 10 years due to proximity to downtown, universities, corporations moving in, redevelopment of parks/recreations etc.

The high density polyurethane as mentioned in the other posts is much lighter than a cement/mud mixture making it less likely to cause additional settlement due to the weight, another benefit is that it expands and compresses the soil underneath it to a certain degree.

I would turn the bathroom sideways in the corner , get rid of the mud room and utilize all that space for a bigger kitchen (if those aren’t load baring walls)

Long term there is no other solution than just paying the taxes, if you have to take out a loan to do so that may be an undesirable but necessary option.

They might have other issues that make them undesirable aside from dings on their credit report.I would agree with the others that the safest long-term solution would be to wait until you find a tenant that you feel comfortable with.

The thing is I've never been to those areas that used to be undesirable - so there is a lot of research and learning to be done to figure out those areas.