Related to this, please also make sure and get a utility planning study done as part of your feasibility process.

And while I was able to increase rents substantially, the making the garage a garage again, also involved a full gut remodel of the rest of the house, so the design and newness certainly played a big roll on the rent increase.Second case study, my wife and I recently bought a flip.  1960's built, four bed 2.5 bath house.  

Let's use Brewerytown 10 years ago as a case study.

While house hacking your first year, continue to learn and study as much as you can.

That said I do agree that perfect ratings set off alarms for most, there have been studies with Amazon reviews about this.

Otherwise, you need to put out some money on a market study.  

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Study the market.

Have you considered a cost segregation study on your properties? 

Where are you studying self storage as an REI?