And yet when I look at my portfolio holistically, I am seeing houses that are cashflow negative for years to come due to major capex-related expenses.

Hopefully you are able to find a lender that will take the time to understand where you're coming from and look at your situation holistically. 

I would advise you to have a holistic, comprehensive view of your wealth building process. 

This holistic screening has really improved the quality of tenants they've put in my properties, and has also helped reduce turnover dramatically

You can draw inferences from more holistic data, but this is a pretty Stretch Armstrong level stretch to me. 

But wanted to give a holistic answer.

This can also be a real estate agent who is familiar with the renovation process, and might even be the same agent as you use for #1 above.Long story short, if you can't be there personally, you need to ensure that there is someone who has a holistic view of the project on-the-ground and looking out for your best interests on an almost daily basis (and this shouldn't be the contractor).

Look at your investment decisions holistically. 

Holistic enforcement on capacity would be nice.  

Make holistic value buys--time, price, quality, reliability all factored in.