I really want to turn those properties into Airbnb listings due to promising ROI and no HOA restrictions … The biggest challenge for me is to hire someone on the ground to set it up and coordinate with vendors, for example running errands to pick up the keys from my agent, purchase / receive / assembly furniture, installing smart lock so I can have full control over my property remotely..

It will probably take you at least a year to actually cash flow an arbitrage unit, since you can't really call it cash flow until your revenues have paid off all the furniture. 

But if you look at it as property with 4% coc (which may be challenging to achieve) then it will be disappointing.In a city like Houston, I personally look at an owner occupant house as a depreciating liability - just like car, clothes, shoes, furniture - something that I will use everyday and hence I should like it as a place to live rather than an investment.

I did spend a lot of time shopping, doing price comparisons and building furniture myself.

Do not depend on reviews from the typical homeowners who might have had a handyman/contractor hang pictures, or assemble furniture, or paint a room.A larger rehab project requires skills and subs that don't come with handymen. 

It's a new house, so right now there's really no furniture in it. 

We're talking cell phones, a big screen TV, air conditioning units, furniture, electronics, etc. 

There's a relatively untested way to absorb some but I emphasize it's untested which a long way from either approved or disallowed.The theory is that if the improvements are less than 10% of the value of the property you are buying and the improvements are things that would normally be associated with a structure (roof, A/C, flooring etc not furniture or a car in the garage). 

I hadn't been considering depreciation, the furniture depreciation, or the $25k safe harbor rental income and ability to deduct losses if a professional.

In my mind, I really don't have anyone to evict as I am only trying to get belongings and furniture out and I thought it would be considered abandonment since there are no utilities.