The areas are continuously improving, with bigger developer interest now moving into Germantown.

Clearly not an apples to apple comparison.Turns out the owner has made some improvements since May, like a new roof (which I verified by driving past it today), re-tarring the driveway, improving the garage - this is everything I could see from the driveby - will see the interior on Friday. 

You should have an understanding of what their strategy is, where they get their links from, and how they plan on improving your rank.

lets see, ive rehabbed nearly 60 mostly vacant dumps and turned them into decent ( rental) to excellent (flips) places to live, now generating tax revenues, water bill revenues, env fine revenue,..where once they did not, improving the looks of the neighborhoods for neighbors and the city simultaneously.

Finally, while the county will never physically get closer to the Bay Area or Redding, and transit time from Redding isn't really improvable due to the terrain, there is ongoing efforts to make Humboldt more connected to the south.

--what improvements/updates have you done to the property in the last year?

A friend of mine made every "improvement" you can think of and it hasn't helped increase their rent value at all.

Anticipating her question:  Since the existing mortgage stays in place in her name, what happens in a couple of years if her situation improves and she wants to purchase another house? 

Given that 5+ unit complexes puts you in the commercial real estate realm, you know will be dealing with seasoned investors that rely on the numbers to value property vs. comps.I think by buying turnkey properties, it really limits your ability to find smoking deals.It’s not impossible, but certainly much more difficult.However, you may be able to find a turnkey property that has poor management (unlikely) and force appreciation by improving on that fact without doing much else.

They usually split improvements and land.