It is an expensive project, and probably only pencils if you have a 6 figure budget... this isn't what most investors want to hear though.

I have a budget for my first purchase of about 500k and I am looking heavily at Atlanta or Decatur GA.

Most often it was out of need for a specific location and space, so I first concentrate on the location, then #beds (typically), once I've narrowed it down, then I go to budget.

The price of the service depends on the exact scope and how thorough you need them to be but I would budget $200-$400 based on my experience with cleaners.

Depending on the budget, I would recommend looking into single family or duplex, keep some $ to do some house hacking and rent out the other units/rooms.

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If you are early in the project, you can often scale down other parts of the renovation to cover the cost, i.e. that terrazzo tile that would have been perfect is no longer in the budget.  

July 1 to Aug 15 STR revenue will cover the mortgage for the year provided that we spend that time staying with family and/or on a low-ish budget vacation.I'm not suggesting you move to this forgotten corner of the country, but look at a solid vacation rental market.

If you're on a budget, podio (or if you need a ton of customization for very specific situations) custom built podio setups is a good place to start. 

My strategy is to find a good agent, analyze the off market deals presented to me on either SF or MF within my budget, account for some repairs so I don't want to buy turnkey but also don't want to BRRRR from out of state (at least not yet), and rent to section 8.