Speak with lenders early to understand your borrowing power, and explore multifamily properties to maximize your house-hacking potential.

That’s the power of leverage.

By all means give them a note on how to use all of the appliances (eg clean out the lint trap on the drier after each load, do not use dish soap in a dishwasher, change the furnace filter regularly, etc).

I have spent the last few years reading many books on real estate, taking real estate courses, researching, saving as much as I could, investing (to increase my purchase power) and finally feel I can begin my real estate journey this year. 

Which results in more wear and tear and cleaning. 

I'd also look into property taxes and what is included with that $800 condo fee (that is really high though guessing it may include weekly cleaning). 

I realize that commercial investing is more in-line with my goals, so I have wiped my slate clean and ready to start over from the beginning.

Simple touches like fresh paint, landscaping, and clean walkways can make a big difference.Highlight Key Features: During the appraisal, point out any high-quality materials or unique features you've added.

Trying to run a successful PMC is difficult but trying to run multiple companies - VR, Annual, cleaning, and landscaping is probably going to give you an aneurism.

For example, to get up-to-date property tax data you would need to scrape every county's tax data website (thousands of different websites, data formats, issues, etc...) then aggregate and clean the data.