Risk goes hand in hand with the amount of money you stand to make.  

Of the IRA money I spent $120k on the remodel.

We are considering stepping in and trying to buy the place, but looking for some guidance on STR and what kind of money this place can bring in. 

Good morning Carl, @David Krulac is right on the money. 

They make their money off of real estate agents, but real estate agents are the worst people to make money off because they are highly unreliable and in and out of the business when the market changes.Their target should be the consumer with higher levels that they can subscribe too for data, since Zillow is linked to the MLS now which makes their data somewhere more reliable.

The expert you are looking for is called a Land Surveyor, they're going to want 5k-15k, if you want to make any money on your project you need to build a house so you also need an architect, they will want 10k-50k, if you're in a hillside zone you will also need a geologist, they're going to want 10k, you will also need a biologist, they're going to want 2k-5k.

Sure it does. but depending on who the celebrity is/was.....That's why so many little hotels, boarding houses, vacation rentals, etc..... feature this in their advertising.And in some cases, you will not get more money, but you will get more guests.A little while ago, I went to Tombstone AZ and stayed in 'The first boarding house in Tombstone'....really cool place but kinda small and, well....old feeling.

Unfortunately almost every franchise involves renting the occupied space when the property would have made more money than the business.

I do own two triplexes in Scranton, and I will say the one issue is that you are going to be taking care of the utilities normally if they are not on separate meters, which could take a good amount of money away from your overall cash flow. 

Since you can't control the sale price, you basically have a $4k cushion to your reno costs, or otherwise you lose money compared to the as-is scenario.