...investment: selling a house needing repair as is or making repairs 1st?

I'd say repair first, esp. if you know how to do it (can work on it yourslef, know good contractor, can get materials cheap, etc.)

Remodeling Online conducts an annual survey of the cost of recouping projects by project and region. (See link below).My suggestion would be to make a list of improvement projects, and then talk to a local realtor familiar with your area about how much value they would add. If you sold it today, as is, how long would it take to sell and what would you ask? If you took [X] months to make [Y] repairs, how long would it take then?

www.remodeling.hw.net (http://www.remodeling.hw.net/content/CvsV/CostvsValue.asp?articleID=211765&sectionID=173)