Unless you are an experienced developer, investors may be hesitant to loan you money to perform such a major project.  

There is a strip of a few miles between Design District/ Buena Vista and El Portal/Miami Shores that you can still get in at a fairly low price point with performances ranging  from 8-10%. 

The math is:  to jump up cash on cash performance, ramp up passive income, so one can stop the "job" of doing transaction income tactics like flipping.  

If it is a law office that will be handling the assignment do I need to be aware of any sales techniques they  will try on me when I bring them the paper work (I imagine the  lawyer puffing a cigar sitting back in his chair staring at me with a bright white suite on looking like colonel sanders and  saying with a serious look on his face "son , I do believe you need to get x and x insurance because there are lot's of scams out there, protect yourself and don't be another  statistic, while you're at it you need to buy Advance Contract Performance Processing so your paper work does not get lost or something, it really is the smart thing to do in my professional opinion.

It is a lot like sitting down to play poker in Vegas.

Perform any extra repairs, no. 

I would also advise discounting your cash flows any time your analysis looks into future performance.

Prior renovations performed, as @Andrew Campbell mentioned. 

An investment won't perform the way you expect.  

Construction, especially in less regulated states like Texas, has a higher risk of non-performance.