Not investing so my FB friends will say that I am a good guy until I have to evict one of my homeless tenants. ( Where is the profit)You might do so, only as a tool to present yourself in a better community light, and have a lot of taxes that need to be offset.

Currently there is a non-conforming bedroom along with a total of  1,000sqft of livable fully  finished and well lit from natural light living space, including a bathroom and laundry — and a kitchenette area.  

What you listed above puts you light-years ahead of 90% of people your age, but you came here for advice, not kudos, so let's get down to it...First, you need to decide your risk tolerance.

Most of Indy is covered by two utility providers, Indianapolis Power & Light(electric) and Citizens Energy Group(Gas, Water, and Sewer).

You should get input from local agents on what rental rates you can achieve in light of the slightly unusual location and you may want to factor in some additional vacancy if you want to be conservative.

Maybe some day your ex-tenant will want to pay the debt off to have it removed from their credit report, but another benefit is that it warns other landlords (at least the ones who bother to run a credit report) that they left owing you money.

New carpet upstairs and in the basementNew laminate downstairs Brand new appliancesAll new kitchen, including granite countersAdded a pantryDemolished two downstairs bedrooms and made into one with an en-suiteMaster bath with tile floor and a HUGE tile showerNew electricalNew plumbingNew ductworkTile fireplaceChalkboard/magnetic wall in the basementNew landscapingNew facia boardingNew lights I lost track of how many new windows I would post pictures here, but it appears we can’t do that on mobile (Mindy Jensen can we get a patch/update for that?)

You want to tread these waters lightly 

Trigger warning: bigger pockets heresy incoming. 

@Jacob Ostreicher - I have a real problem with the way many landlords treat section 8, so what follows may seem a little harsh, but I would warn against this kind of strategy for three reasons.1) Section 8 is designed to get good people out of bad neighborhoods.